MMPR: Ranger Lost, Ranger Found
by sailoratomic
Summary: The ranger team has lost one of thier own in a battle against a terrible monster, then Zordon recurits a new ranger.
1. Chapter 1

Chapter 1

I continued to stare down at my hands not believing that I had actually taken a life. And not just any life but the life of a power ranger. I began to tremble, I still in a state of shock. But then I shouldn't be at all surprised at this, he did chose me for this reason in fact he had told me what my job was. And now I had done it, I had killed the yellow ranger.

"I have to say." said a voice behind me, nearly making me jump out of my skin.

"You did an excellent job, I couldn't be more happier."

Spinning around I faced my master, Lord Zedd. I bowed my head still trembling and struggling not to cry.

"Well, if it had been this easy to weaken the rangers this way, I would have chosen you a long time ago." I flinched.

"Thank you master." I mumbled. He didn't say anything, just held up his staff over my head and released the spell that has been over me for a full 6 months. I felt lighter, the spell was gone and so was the monster that I had become. But I knew that I would still have nightmares about her. I looked up tentatively.

"I'm free?"

"Yes, much as it pains me to do so, I give you your freedom back. You were a good servant Amy, and like any good master, I promise not to harm your family."

"Thank you master." He let out a grunt then vanished in a flash of lighting. I sat down on my bed again._ I should be grateful that I have my freedom back that I'm alive and that my family is safe...and yet...how can I be when I've doomed the Earth. Well, not exactly doomed it, there are still five rangers left plus that blue guy._ I shoved thoughts that were creeping into my mind away, I didn't even want to think about the other rangers or how much danger the world was in. I was tired from that battle plus mentally exhausted, I didn't want to think about how much trouble I was going to be in if the power rangers found out that the monster that killed their companion was a 15 year old girl, I didn't even think that they would believe that I was forced into it._ Maybe they'll kill me quickly and put an end to my misery._ I thought to myself as I slowly peeled off my shirt, I turned so that my back was facing the mirror. Craning my neck around to as far as it could go I looked at my back. _yup. Still there and they still look fresh._ I slipped into a bathrobe and made my way down to the bathroom with a guilt ridden heart, stepping into the room I turned on the hot water then the cold water and drew myself a bath, letting the robe slid off I carefully slid into the tub and sat down, I began washing myself. I looked at my hands surprised that I didn't see any blood from the ranger's body. I buried my face in my hands and wept.

5 weeks later

_Surprised to see that the world is still here._ I thought as I walked to Angel Grove High. _Even more surprised that life goes on. _I saw some kids that were laughing, talking with their friends and smiling._ Silly me, just because one ranger is dead doesn't mean that the entire team will fall._ The power rangers were still fighting Lord Zedd and his monsters, a couple of times they nearly lost, but they would somehow figure out how to defeat monster after monster and win. _I guess I should be grateful that my master hasn't called on me again. Though I wonder why he doesn't come to me and tell me that I have to kill the rest of the rangers. My master only turned me into that monster for that full 5 months just to get rid of that one ranger, why only one?_ _Maybe letting one ranger fall in front of the entire team, will be enough to shake them up a bit or something._ I thought to myself as I took out my English book and math book._ He never really explained to me why he needed me to kill the yellow ranger and not the rest of them. Should I be grateful that he only sent me to kill just one ranger and not the entire team? If I had killed the entire team the world would be destroyed right now, maybe he thought that since one ranger is dead the others will be easy pickings._ I shook my head. I was tired of thinking this way and forcing these thoughts from my head, I made my way toward English class. Ms. Sullivan my English teacher greeted me with a smile, I returned it half heartily, I sat down at my desk and semi listened to the teacher as she began the lesson._ How could I do such a horrible thing? But...I didn't have a choice , if I didn't then Zedd would have killed my family and what's more important? Protecting your family or refusing to kill a power ranger and ensure that the Earth was still around?_ _Both are important but I could only chose one. Wish I could do it over again then I would refuse...but what would stop Lord Zedd from placing that spell over me? That girl would still be dead, the power rangers would be one ranger short, and I would still have her blood on my hands._ The bell rang and I jerked my head up, I had been so deep in thought that I didn't hear a word the teacher said. Luckily the homework was written on the board, flipping my notebook to a fresh page I quickly wrote it down, then scrambled to my feet and went to my next class.

I breathed a sigh as lunchtime came, I needed to be by myself for a bit. During my classes I had given myself a firm talking to, sure what I had done was pretty horrible but the world was still around, the power rangers were still fighting Zedd's monsters they hadn't given up. In fact what had happened couldn't be helped, _even if I had refused, like I said before, he, still would have cast that spell on me. Maybe if I had refused then he wouldn't have treated me so badly, he wouldn't have treated me ...like a slave. He probably wouldn't have given me beatings every time I failed. Then again..._ I shook my head, I had seen how he had treated Goldar and Rito, if Lord Zedd wasn't beating me for failing then those two would be using me as a punching bag, releasing their frustrations. I shook my head hard, shaking away the horrible memories._ Don't think about that now, you're free, and you always will be. You are no longer his puppet or his slave, he won't hurt you anymore because you kept your part of the bargain._ I looked down at my sandwich and took a bite out of it and chewed thoughtfully._ If he says I'm free then why I do I feel like I'm not. _

"Hi." said a voice, I nearly jumped out of my skin. Looking up I saw Kimberly Hart. She was in my math class, I've seen her around school with her friends. Tommy Oliver, her boyfriend, Rocky Desantos, who was the king of comedy and who was really cute, Adam Park, he was cool, and Billy Cranston, the school's brain, they were cool, but a little weird. I've often wondered if I was the only one that noticed that all four of them seemed to wear the same color on a daily basis. Tommy would wear white, Rocky would wear red, Adam would wear black, Kimberly would wear pink and Billy would wear blue. After thinking about it for a bit, I had pegged it down to a weird friendship thing. I smiled at her hesitantly.

"Mind if I sit here?" She asked indicating the empty seat next to me. I shook my head. She sat down then asked.

"You're Amy Karmer, aren't you?"

"Yes I am." She extending out her hand. I took it timidly and shook it.

"Name's Kimberly Hart."

"Nice to meet you." I said.

"Likewise."_ Does she want anything? Nobody in school has given me a second glance._ I swallowed suddenly very nervous.

"So...you're a freshman here right?" asked Kimberly. I nodded, still eating, needing to do something.

"How do you like school so far?"

"It's okay, the teachers are nice."

"Ever gotten lost here?" I shook my head, even though it was a lie. There was this one time where I had forgotten my way to my math class.

"I have, when I was a freshman, now I know the school like the back of my hand." She said. I flinched, already feeling stupid. I knew the location of my classes, the gym, the lunchroom, and the bathrooms, the rest of the school was like another land to me. Kimberly turned to me after looking around a bit.

"Do you want to sit with me and my friends?" I stared at her in a panic as she pointed to her friends, they waved to us. I knew that I was blushing. _Is it because I'm sitting here by myself and eating, she saw me and felt sorry for me is that it? Amy, don't be ridiculous. She's just coming over for a chat. besides she just wants me to meet her friends for the first time._ I paused in my thinking._ Why do I feel as if I've meet them before?_ I jumped as the bell rang.

"Oh, thank goodness...I-I mean...sorry Kimberly maybe next time okay? I've got to get to class." I hurriedly gathered my stuff and swung my backpack onto my shoulders. "Good-bye." Then I took off for some reason, I wanted to get as far away from Kimberly and her friends as possible.

"Right bye." she called to me. Then she turned back to her friends. All of them had stood up and were making their way through the crowd of kids heading to their class.

"Well, that didn't go to well." said Billy.

"Relax, it was the first time that they've met, kids are bound to be nervous, you didn't expect her to join us at the first chance did you?" said Tommy.

"I just don't get why Zordon wants us to recruit this girl. I mean, we have been doing fine so far, so we've nearly lost a few battles. So what? We've managed to beat Zedd's monsters." said Rocky.

"Yes, but we need someone to pilot the Ninja Bear Zord, Alpha can't keep driving it with a remote control." pointed out Adam.

"And we need a sixth ranger to create the ninja megazord, look Zordon told us that Amy has incredible power, power that she was born with. She could be a really big help to us." Tommy said.

"Yeah? Well what if she says no? Then what will we do?" snapped Rocky.

"It doesn't have to happen right now right now, we'll just need a few days for her to feel comfortable with us and then we'll see if Amy wants to join."

"Tommy, we don't have a few days. Lord Zedd is kicking our tails out there, in fact a couple of times he was within inches of winning, if luck hadn't been on our side that day..." Rocky glared at his leader.

"I know that you are following Zordon's orders, but what about the rest of us huh? Aisha hasn't been dead for more than a month and now Zordon is thinking of replacing her? We are still in the mourning stage." Both boys glared at each other. Adam stepped between them and said quietly.

"He knows that this is hard for all of us, Zordon's only thinking of the team, in fact he was sorry that we didn't have enough time to mourn for her, but at the same time we just can't let Aisha's death stop us from doing what we have to do. We have keep on going for the Earth's sake as well as for Aisha."

"Its what she would have wanted." said Kimberly, she blinked back tears. Rocky closed his eyes for a bit and breathed deeply, he exhaled in a long sigh.

"Okay, so should each of us take a turn introducing ourselves?" Kimberly thought for a minute then she said that she had better talk to me one on one.

"She'll feel more comfortable with just one person, besides she seemed a bit scared when I approached her." They had reached their class and were sitting down and talking all the while the teacher was talking. The teacher glared at the group and they fell silent. Tommy gave Kimberly a brief nod as their eyes met. Kimberly stared straight ahead and thought about yesterday.

"I know that all of you will think this is completely unfair of me and too soon but...we need to recruit a new yellow ranger." Zordon said. The others had stared at him, then they admitted to each other that the power rangers couldn't go on with 5 ranger and the keeper of the temple for very long. Lord Zedd had given his monsters and henchmen some new power that made them faster and stronger. They had barely survived the last attack.

"H--how are we going to go about choosing a new ranger?" asked Tommy.

"I have already found a candidate." Everyone turned toward the viewing globe, there was a picture of a girl, with dark hair, glasses and who was skinny.

"This is the girl that I have chosen to be new yellow ranger." The rangers stared at my picture. Zordon watched them seeing a mixture of anger, disbelief on each of their faces.

"We know what you're feeling, that its too soon to chose a new ranger. But Lord Zedd won't wait until you've had a chance to mourn."

"We all know that." said Tommy quietly. all of them were silent for a few moment, then Kimberly turned and asked.

"Who is she?"

"Her name is Amy Karmer." said Alpha 5. "And our database tells us that she goes to your school." He paused for a minute. Then said.

"She has incredible power, power that she was born with." The rangers turned and stared at him.

"Powers?" said Billy. Alpha nodded.

"We don't know if Lord Zedd knows about them but if he does find her before we do..." he let his voice trail off.

"We need our approval, if you don't approve of Zordon's choice then we can look for another candidate, but if you do then we can go ahead and proceed to make her into a ranger." Tommy looked down at the floor then back at the viewing globe._ She looks a lot more younger than she appears to be, could she really be cut out to be a ranger? _He looked at his fellow rangers, and asked them what they thought. Rocky looked angry and voiced his opinion which was that he thought it was unbelievable that Zordon would chose a new yellow ranger right after Aisha was killed. Adam agreed but said that because of the powers that Zedd's henchmen packed nowadays they could really use someone powerful.

"At least give us more time to mourn for her." said Rocky.

"Rocky, believe me if I could, I would give you all more time, but Lord Zedd won't give you that, wherever he got this new power, it has made his army more stronger, Amy's power could give us the boost that this team needs but in order to make her into a ranger, I need your approval." Billy was silent then he looked up and asked.

"What kind of power does she have?"

"We're not entirely sure, but if we can get her up here and ask her we can get all the information for our data banks." Alpha said. Kimberly, Adam and Billy were silent each thinking. Finally Kimberly spoke up and asked.

"Where does she live Zordon?"

"Does she go to Angel Grove High?" asked Adam.

"How old is she?" asked Billy. Zordon answered all of their questions then he turned to Tommy and Rocky, who had both stayed silent.

"Tommy, what do you think?" Tommy was silent. Finally he said.

"If she can help us beat Lord Zedd, then I'm all for it." The others smiled at him.

"Rocky?" Rocky looked up at Zordon. Zordon looked down at him.

"A new yellow ranger will replace the one that we had lost, but we'll keep Aishia's memory alive within all of us, we won't forget her." he said softly. Rocky was silent for a few minutes more, mulling it over then he let out a sigh then said.

"Okay, so where do we find her?" The others cheered, then they made up a plan on how to approach me. The bell rang, causing Kimberly to leap up and fall out of her chair, she landed on the ground. Rocky was trying to keep a straight face while he helped her up.

"You okay?" asked Tommy coming to her side. Kimberly nodded. After dusting herself off and gathering her books Kimberly took off to go find me while the others went to the Youth Center. I was just at my locker and getting my books out when a voice behind me say.

"Amy!" I jumped and let out a little scream and I dropped a couple of books on my foot. Letting out a yelp of pain I turned toward the person who scared the daylights out of me.

"Sorry about that, here let me help you." It was Kimberly, she bent down and began to pick up my books for me.

"No I got it." I said as I squatted down and took the books from her, we both stood up and faced each other.

"Sorry for scaring you, you seem jumpy this today."

"I've just had a lot on my mind lately." I said as I began to say goodbye to her and walk away.

"Hey listen, can I walk home with you, I--I need to ask you something." I glanced at her, I was more used to being alone but it would be nice to have some company. So I nodded then the both of us began to walk toward the exit of the school, down the stairs and out onto the sidewalk. For the first couple of blocks both of us didn't say much. then we came to the park.

"So what did you want to ask me?" I thought that maybe I should be the one to break the silence. Kimberly took a deep breath she turned to me and opened her mouth. But instead of words, she gasped, her eyes widened. I spun only to face Goldar! I let out a gasp also, he punched me hard across the face, I stumbled to the side giving him a clear shot of Kimberly. Tengu Warriors had appeared out of nowhere and were trying to grab me! _They're going to take me back to Lord Zedd! He's going to kill me! _Was my first thought, I began to fight beating back the Tengus and Rito who was busily slapping me around trying to get me to fall. But I was fighting to stay on my feet, I couldn't let them take me. Rito had shoved me against a tree.

"So thought you could make friends with the rangers?"

"What are you talking about? Kimberly's not a ranger." He cackled.

"There is so much that you don't know, Zedd wants a word with you." He gripped the front of my shirt and pulled me toward him, I began to struggle. Then he was kicked aside by the White Ranger! I stumbled the ranger caught me.

"You alright?" he asked me. I nodded.

"Get the girl!" shouted Goldar. Rito was already on his feet and was charging at me but the White Ranger got in the way and both of them began to fight. I looked around for an escape route, but the Tengu Warriors had surrounded me, the other rangers came to my rescue and surround me also, but they were facing the Tengu Warriors.

"I guess Lord Zedd already knows." said the Black Ranger. The Blue Ranger spoke to his wrist and shouted.

"Zordon, its not safe for Amy here she can't get away. Teleport her to the Command Center!" I let out a little gasp as I saw everything disappear around me. The next thing I knew I was on the ground...er..floor startled I looked up and around.

"Phew! That was a definite close one." said a voice, a little robot suddenly came toward me, I began to crab walk backward as fast as I could, until I hit something, turning my head I saw a white globe. The little robot looked at me.

"Don't worry, I'm not going to hurt you, my name is Alpha 5, and this is the Command Center." I looked around while I slowly stood up, the Command Center had a large consol that made a half circle, looking up I saw an empty blue tube that was 2 feet high, I turned myself slowly around looking at everything. I looked at the robot who was looking back at me.

"H--how did I get here?"

"You were teleported."

"Teleported?"

"Yes, I teleported you here to get you out of danger's way."

"Oh. T--thank you."

"You're welcome." Suddenly a voice directed at me called greetings.

"Greetings Amy Karmer." My head shot up and my mouth dropped open. In the tube, a gigantic head was sliding down!

"I am..." he started but I interrupted him by letting out a shriek then diving for cover behind the globe. Alpha let out a sigh.

"Zordon, really." he said in an annoyed voice. For the next couple of minutes the head that was called Zordon and Alpha 5 tried to coax me out of my hiding place. I was about to step out from behind the Viewing Globe as Alpha called it when more people teleported in, back I went behind the Viewing Globe.

"Is Amy okay Zordon?" asked the one of the rangers, I stared at them then slowly stood up.

"Yes, she's right behind you." said Alpha with a small gesture. The rangers all turned and I crouched in fear. _Why did they bring me here? Do they know who I used to be? Do they know what I was forced to do? _I began to shake, one of the rangers stepped forward.

"Its okay, we won't hurt you Amy."

"How do you know my name?" I took a step back away from the ranger's outstretched hand.

"Its okay," said the pink ranger. "come out from behind there please." I hesitated then I took a few baby steps toward them. I looked at them.

"We need your help, Lord Zedd has come across this incredible power that he feeds to his army, he has nearly defeated us, but we've managed to beat him. The thing is we don't know how much longer we can 'just barley make it'". said the White Ranger. I stared at them, while taking a step back.

"What do you need from me?" the Blue Ranger stepped forward.

"We know that you have powers that you were born with, with your powers we might have a chance to defeat Lord Zedd." I gasped and my hand went to my locket that hung from around my neck. _My powers...how did they know about them?_ I stared at them.

"Y--you're asking me to join you, to be a ranger?"_ If my master found out he'd skin me alive._ I shuddered at the thought of facing him.

"Yes, we are." said the Red Ranger.

"Please Amy." said the Black Ranger. I hesitated. _If I step out of here then I am as good as dead, he'll probably torture me first to see if I was told of anything of importance and then he'll kill me. On the other hand if I join then I'll be able to redeem myself of every horrible thing that I was forced to do, and I can protect my family more better._

"Okay, I'll join."

"Seriously? Cool." said the Red Ranger. The White Ranger approached me.

"First of all we have to show you who we really are." All of them took off their helmets to reveal Tommy, Rocky, Adam, Kimberly and Billy!!! I took a step back and stared at them. _Rito was right._ Kimberly smiled at me, while Tommy handed me the Yellow Ranger Power Coin, I approached Zordon and he explained how I had to follow rules. I promised that I would follow these rules without fail. I couldn't believe it, I had become the new yellow ranger!


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

Before we could really celebrate me becoming a ranger a noise suddenly rang throughout the Command Center!

"What is that?" I shouted looking around in a panic.

"It's the alarm." said Alpha. "That usually means that Lord Zedd is on the attack."

_Uh oh, Goldar must have already told Zedd that I vanished in the middle of the battle. He must know that I've already gone to join the Power Rangers!_ My first instinct was to run but I steeled myself, _I have to fight, they need me and my powers._ I turned to Adam.

"I'm ready."

"Okay." He said. All of us raised our morphers to the sky and shouted.

"Its Morphin Time!"

"White Ranger Power!"

"Pink Ranger Power!"

"Yellow Ranger Power!"

"Blue Ranger Power!"

"Black Ranger Power!"

"Red Ranger Power!" In a spilt second it took all of us to morph we appeared in the park, I looked down at myself. _Whoa, I can't believe I'm really the yellow ranger!!_ Then I felt my stomach drop with fear._ Oh man, if Lord Zedd captures me, I am so dead meat. _In front of us Goldar and a horde of Tengu Warriors were already bearing down on us, and I fought them off alongside the other rangers. Goldar went straight toward me eyes full of loathing and hatred._ Can you really blame the guy for hating me? I've just achieved something that he has dreamed of for a long time: I took down a power ranger, I became his master's favorite, even though the only rewards that Zedd gave out to me were beatings and whippings. Just knowing that I had accomplished a great thing an almost impossible thing, gave Goldar reason to hate me._ During all of those times when I was kicked around and punched and beaten by Goldar, I couldn't help but think that there was another reason that Goldar hated me. It was because I was only a mere human, how could a mere human take down a ranger when Lord Zedd's monsters have failed countless of times when Goldar himself failed countless of times._ I bet that he would love to have my head on silver platter._ I thought to myself as I thrust out my left arm and wrapped my mind around several Tengus, they were levitated up and thrown against several trees._ Bam!_ All of them slid down, uttering moans of pain. _Hmm, lets see how you like being thrown around a room like a rag doll._ I thought to myself. I turned as I heard a yell , a monster as well as Rito were racing at all of us, Tommy gave the call, and all of us formed aline and raced at them. It felt a little weird, being on the other side, actually I wasn't sure how to feel this was all so new and exciting. It was also dangerous and deadly. I knew that I would have to keep my guard up from now on. Because if I didn't Lord Zedd would capture me, and I didn't want to go back to the palace. I pulled out my daggers and for a spilt second I was confused. _How do I fight with these?_ Throughout the battle with the Tengu Warriors, I had mainly relied on my powers to get rid of them, this monster was a whole different story. I struggled to remember how the Yellow Ranger fought._ Maybe if I combine my telekinesis with the daggers_. I prayed that it would work. I charged at the monster all the while thinking that I was totally insane. I leapt but Goldar blasted me in the side with a fireball, I let out a scream of pain as I was pushed by the force and lay on the ground, I lost my concentration. I lay there trying hard not to cry. _That blast, it was the same one he used to discipline me this one time._ But now it was much more stronger. I struggled to my feet, Goldar had strode up to me while the others were around me asking if I was okay, they were all blasted back. Rito and the monster flew over me so that they could deal with the others while Goldar dealt with me. Goldar kicked me in the side I let out a yell of pain. He kicked me over and over, he stooped down and grabbed me by my neck and lifted me up so that we were eye to eye.

"Do you have any idea how long I've been wanting to do that? A very very long time, oh sure its no different from the punishments and the beatings that I give you, but this time I have no reason to hold back!" _Hold back??_ Was my first thought as I was flung headlong into a tree, I managed to kick my brain into gear and missed the tree by mere inches. I lay on the grass then I began to struggle to my feet, I made it to my knees before I was knocked back a few feet by another fire ball from Goldar's sword. We were getting farther and farther away from the others, I would be on my own against Goldar and by far, he was a lot stronger than he looked. He walked up to me and allowed me to get up, it only gave him the chance to punch me. I staggered back, before I could clear my head he punched me again.

"You are no ranger, you will never be a true ranger. You don't have what it takes. Once the other rangers see that they'll abandon you and there will be no stopping what we will do to you." I stumbled back a few steps, he pulled out his sword again and fired! I raised my hand and deflected it.

"You're wrong, I will become a true ranger! I will train hard and make you all pay for what you did to me, I will make amends for what you and your master forced me to do. I will not let my new friends down." Goldar glared at me then he raced at me, I continued to stand there, then in the second that it took for him to set his foot mere inches in front of mine, I grabbed his arm and lifted him until he was over my head then gathering my strength I turned my entire body and brought him down hard onto the floor. I released and took a few steps back panting, I heard an explosion behind me. Turning I saw that the other ranger were doing all right on their own, I turned back to Goldar. he had risen to his feet and the both of us proceed to fight. Even though I didn't know any martial arts still I did the best that I could and I managed to knock him off his feet, he vanished. _Coward._ I thought to myself then I began to run back to the others when Rito and Goldar leapt out of a tree and landed on me! I was shoved to the ground, then I was hauled to my feet where I was shoved against a tree and beaten, the blue guy, whom I had often seen fighting alongside the rangers, kicked them aside then the both of us proceeded to kick both of their butts. After they had both had enough of a beating, they vanished.

"Hi, we haven't been formally introduced. My name is Ninjor."

"Amy Karmer." We shook hands then both of us turned and charged at the monster. I helped them defeat the monster using my powers, we were about to finish it off, it grew really big. We are talking about 24 stories high big, as I stared up at the monster, I couldn't help but think_ this guy could give Godzilla a run for his money._ The others called on the Ninja Zords I stared at them, even though I had seen them come out of nowhere a thousand times while I was Zedd's slave it still took my breath away. They were totally awesome!! I turned to my friends.

"How do we...??"

"We jump." Rocky said. I stared at him. _He's joking, he must be joking. there is no way that a person can jump all the way up there!!_ My friends leapt!! And vanished in their Zords. _Okay, obviously someone can jump that high. Mental note: Ask Tommy how that is possible!_ The other Zords were already in motion. I took a deep breath._ Well when in Rome._ I took a few steps back, then I ran forward and jumped! I landed on the Zord's head!!_ Don't look down! Don't look down!_ There was a hatch I quickly hopped down it and breathed a sigh as I landed in a chair. I opened my eyes and wished that I hadn't. Buttons! Everywhere! And a joystick!_ How do you pilot this thing? _I was starting to panic when my communicator beeped, I was trying hard not to cry because I was overwhelmed with what I had to do.

"No sweat Amy Alpha will take care of it, he'll fire, you steer." Rocky's voice came from my communicator.

"STEER?? YOU'RE CRAZY!! I CAN'T EVEN DRIVE A CAR!!" I screamed into my communicator. Tommy's voice came next and he was reassuring me, telling me that we were going to form the Ninja Mega Falcon Zord in a few minutes, in the mean time hang tight. _Hang tight he says._ I looked around for seatbelts so I could strap myself in, there were none._ Perfect, just perfect I'm riding around in a 24 foot Zord with no idea how to control it, with no seatbelts and my new leader tells me to hang tight. What have I gotten myself into. _I gripped the joystick and gave out a yell as the monster charged at me, I yanked the stick to the right as hard as I could, the Zord took a few steps to the right, the monster barley missing it. I caught sight of someone as I straighten myself in my seat. Goldar! He raced at me, sword upraised, I let out a yell and began to look around at the buttons trying to see which one was the button to fire. _Ohmygodohmygodohmygod!_ My Bear Zord suddenly began to fire on its own accord, no wait it was Alpha! Goldar let out a yell of rage as the blasts knocked him a few steps back, suddenly he charged at me, he dodged the blasts and succeeded in knocking down my Zord, I screamed as I tumbled out of my seat! I let out several yelps as Goldar began to kick the Zord, I thought for sure that he was going to rip the Zord in two and reach in and grab me but the others all pounced on him.

"Everyone! Its time to form the NinjaMegaFalcon Zord! Amy, you okay?" asked Tommy. I struggled to get my Zord back on its feet.

"Oh yeah, I'm just dandy." I said sarcastically, I had gotten my Zord back on its feet and the Zords began to come together, to form the MegaZord, finally Tommy flew in and the Falcon Ninja MegaZord was complete. I let out a sigh as I joined my friends in the cockpit._ Big is good, big is really good. _We battled the monster, while Ninjor took care of Goldar. Goldar was trying to get to us and it appeared that Ninjor was having a hard time with him, I decided to take action. Levitating the monster, I sent him flying into Goldar. He didn't have time to duck and was bowled over, Goldar was struggling to lift the monster off of him.

"Get off of me! Get off of me! When I get my hands on her she'll be screaming for mercy!!"

"Now!" yelled Tommy. The MegaFalconZord flew up and dive bombed Goldar and the monster, Ninjor transformed into Warrior Mode and fired an energy ball as we destroyed the monster with a final attack. I breathed a sigh of relief and slumped back in the seat as Goldar vanished. When we got back to the Command Center Zordon congratulated us on a job well done, he asked me if I was okay.

"Yeah, I'm fine Zordon, I just need to sit down for a while." I plopped myself down on the floor.

"You have telekinesis?" asked Billy looking at me. I nodded, he was about to ask me more questions when Tommy stopped him.

"That's enough for one day, eh Billy? Listen, get some rest Amy and later we'll show you how to work your Zord and we'll teach you everything we know okay?" I nodded.

"And I can tell you about my powers." Zordon nodded then after helping me to my feet Kimberly showed me how to teleport out of the Command Center and I arrived in my room, I flopped onto my bed and slept, exhausted.

Over the next few days I showed my friends my powers and they in turn taught me how to drive my Zord, fight with the daggers(though I was still having a bit of trouble) and Tommy was going to show me some karate moves. I was a little nervous when it came to that I wanted to try my hardest and show Tommy and the others that I would be a worthy ranger. Goldar had taught me some moves but the moves were only for a monster, I was really glad that I would never fight as the monster, DeathClaw, ever again. The transformation was painful. Plus I knew that if I did anything wrong Tommy and the others would forgive me instead of beat me. Billy would monitor my powers to see how much they would grow daily and so would Alpha. Kimberly offered to teach me gymnastics, but I had already told her that I knew a few moves, but if she wanted she could teach me some more moves. _I guess I should be grateful that the spell came with knowledge on how to dodge the rangers kicks and punches_ _and blasts from their laser guns. _I thought grimly. As I copied Tommy's movements, I would have training sessions two times a day. Going to the Command Center after my training sessions to be tested by Billy and Alpha and Zord training with Rocky and Adam. It was good that I was kept so busy, it helped me push away the idea that I was on my former master's hit list. Plus it pushed away the overwhelming fear that my family was going to be struck down while I was away. Billy was absolutely fascinated by my powers, telekines, the power to shoot sparks of electricity out of my fingertips and the power to morph into a puddle of liquid. He would jot down notes and ask me questions like when did I first discover my powers and how is it that I could control them so easily, and why are the powers stored in my locket and not in my body?

"You were born with them weren't you?"

"I'm really not sure about that last question Billy, see my mother gave me this locket after I got out of middle school." I paused thinking. "On the matter that I can control them so easily, I have no answer to that except that when I first discovered that I had powers, I–I just knew how to control them." I shrugged my shoulders hopelessly.

"What do you mean that you knew how to control them?"

"I-I don't know but when I first levitated something it just felt natural. That's all I can tell you sorry Billy." Billy looked thoughtful. Then told me that that was fine and that he wouldn't press me anymore not until later. I breathed a sigh of relief as I hopped off the stool and made my way to the Zord bay where Adam and Rocky were waiting for me.

"Okay." Rocky smiled at me and I grinned back. "Now, since you already have the basics down, how to drive the Zord and how to fire the lasers and all that, now Adam and I are going to teach you how to fight with your Zord alone." I nodded. Even though I was shaking I managed to keep my knees together. All of us morphed then got into our respective Zords, the Zord bay door was open and the three of us marched out into an empty plane. I looked down at the trees that looked like sticks from my advantage. Rocky's and Adam's Zords stopped when we had gone about a mile away from the Command Center.

Rocky's Ape Zord turned to face me so did Adam's Frog Zord.

"Ready short stuff?" Rocky's voice asked from my communicator, I frowned. _I wish he wouldn't call me that_, but it was nice in a funny kind of way.

"Ready." The Frog and Ape both charged at me, I rushed at them, I went into a tumble which brought me behind them, I reared up then batted at them with my front paws, Rocky dodged them by jumping to one side, Adam leaped up. I flipped myself so that I was putting my entire weight on my front paws and knocked Adam to the ground just as he was leaping over me, Rocky punched me across the face, I staggered back, he was about to kick me when I spun my Zord around and swept him off of his feet, he fell I reared up and was about to bring my whole body down when I saw Adam leap! I rolled off of Rocky and got to my feet as Adam landed on top of Rocky.

"Get off of me already, I do not want to breath in your stinky frog breath." yelled Rocky. I laughed as the two of them struggled, finally Rocky got Adam off of him and we continued to spar. We trained for two hours with Zordon supervising, we only started to have problems when I wanted to stop and look at the scenery. I got out of my Zord wanting to stretch my legs a bit and I made the mistake of leaning over the side of my Zord and seeing the ground far below me. I let out a gasp and grabbed the hatch door and clung to it tightly. Rocky and Adam were about to go back to the Zord bay when they saw that my Zord hadn't moved, coming back toward me they asked me if anything was wrong. I told them what I had just found out.

"Short stuff we all know that and we have no problem with it." Rocky said.

"Yeah, besides you didn't have a problem with heights the other day." Adam said.

"That was because I didn't looked down the other day!" I shouted angrily at him. Both boys had come out of their Zords and were standing on the Frog Zord's head.. For a few minutes they tried to coax me down but I refused.

"Here, I got an idea." said Rocky. Then he called over to me since I refused to answer my communicator because I was afraid that I was going to fall off my Zord.

"Hey, Amy I want you to listen to me carefully. Can you see my house from over there?" Adam took his hand and smacked Rocky on the back of his head.

"Ow! What was that for?"

"You are not helping." Adam snapped at him. Then he called over to me to use my powers to get back into my Zord, I froze. _Stupidstupidstupid!! How could I be so stupid, of coarse use my powers, why didn't I think of that?_ I could feel my face burning up as I concentrated and morphed into a puddle, slid into my seat in my Zord's cockpit and followed Rocky and Adam back to the Zord bay. Then after I had leapt down and landed beside Adam I made up an excuse and left. I was so embarrassed.


	3. Chapter 3

MMPR Ranger Lost, Ranger Found

Chapter3

I had a bit more free time on my hands since my zord training was through, which was bad in my case. It gave me a chance to think. I couldn't stop thinking about what Goldar had said. "Now there is no reason for me to hold back." _What did he mean by that? Holding back? Whenever they beat or whipped me it certainly didn't feel as if they were holding back_. That wasn't the only thing that I had on my mind, a few hard battles had passed and in each of those battles I had been separated from my friends but managed to hold my own. Now those battles alone with Goldar or Rito were brutal, it took all of my strength just to hold those two at bay until the others could come and help me out. The way they beat me and blasted me with their fireballs, several times I thought for sure that I would fall to my knees, giving them the chance to finish me. That was the time that I had made a horrible discovery, not only are_ my_ powers growing but so are _theirs_. They had never used this power against me in any of my punishments, in fact to me it felt familiar in a way. _If only I knew where this power came from and find out why it felt so familiar._ I thought to myself as I struggled into my shirt. I put on my jeans and looked at my reflection and smiled, there was no way that I was going to change my wardrobe. If I wore all yellow to school or a piece of yellow clothing each and everyday then I would feel as if people would figure it out that I was the yellow ranger. I smiled to myself, it struck me as funny that the power rangers chose to wear civilian clothing that was the same color as their ranger suits, _its like they want people to find out that they are the power rangers. _When I asked why, Billy just shrugged his shoulders and Rocky said.

"Why not?" I figured my question was one of those questions that had no answers. I went downstairs and ate breakfast, with a horrible feeling in the pit of my stomach that something bad was going to happen. _Maybe I should stay home._ I had often heard that it was best to follow your instincts, and I was trying to follow mine but my mom wouldn't hear of it.

"Nonsense you go on to school and I will see you when you get home."

"But mom, I've got a feeling that something bad is going to happen."

Mom only shook her head and told me that nothing bad was going to happen, that was when the doorbell rang. It was Kimberly.

"Here's your friend, now go on, or you'll be late."

"But..."

"No but's, off you go now." Mom gave me a push toward the door, I glanced back at her wishing that I could stay home. The bad feeling seemed to be telling me that. I opened the door and Kimberly smiled at me.

"Ready to go Ames?"I glanced once more at my mother, she smiled at me as she closed the door.

"Yeah." I said uneasily. We both went down the stairs, hit the sidewalk and began to walk toward school.

"What's wrong?"

"I don't know, I've got a feeling that something bad is going happen."

"Why don't you call Zordon, let him know that you're worried."

"Zordon?" I said into my communicator. "Can you keep an eye on my mom for me please? I've got this bad feeling that something is going to happen to her."

"Of coarse Amy, I will alert you if something does happen."

"Thanks."

"Feel better?" asked Kimberly.

"A little."

We arrived at school and I put my worries out of my mind, thinking that my family would be safe now that Zordon was watching them. I had to stay after school to retake a math test that I had failed the other day, while I was taking it Lord Zedd, Goldar and a horde of Tengu Warriors arrived at my house. My friends wasted no time and had already met the evil army in battle. Zordon and Alpha tried time and again to contact me but to no avail.

"I can't get through, something is blocking us. I can't contact Amy." Alpha said.

"Keep trying Alpha." ordered Zordon.. He watched as the ranger team fought Goldar and the Tengu Warriors while Lord Zedd spirited himself into my house. I was just leaving my math class congratulating myself on doing a good job on the make up test when I felt a sharp pain in my heart! I froze. Instantly I thought of my mom. _Oh no! Oh no oh no oh no_. I broke into a run praying that I wasn't too late, praying that I could prevent whatever that was happening. Everything that I tried, teleporting, contacting the others, Zordon, Alpha, trying to morph were to no avail!! I thought of my former master and began to think about what he might be doing to my mother..._NO! I mustn't think that, do not think that way Amy_! _The others must already be there, they must be fighting him, Zordon must have already teleported my family to a safe place!!_ I was holding on to false hope, praying that I would get there in time, praying that I could prevent it, but all the while a little voice in the back of my head was screaming: HE PROMISED HE PROMISED ME THAT HE WOULDN'T HURT THEM!! I arrived at my house and didn't see the police officers until one of them grabbed me to hold me back! I began to scream my mom's name over and over again and kept on screaming when I saw two body bags being carried out of my house.

The funeral was a depressing one, but a funeral is never a happy occasion. My parents death made front page news, and yet I ignored the media that would follow me around asking questions. I couldn't tell them the truth and they weren't the only ones that asked the questions. The police wanted answers as well, so did my friends. But I couldn't tell them, I couldn't tell my friends that the reason Lord Zedd killed my parents was due to the fact that I had betrayed him when I had joined the power rangers. To the police and media I said that I didn't know why Zedd had killed my parents, to my friends I only told them that maybe this was just Lord Zedd's way of punishing the rangers for getting to me and my power first. I was angry at Zordon and my friends at first, they could have prevented this, they could have contacted me, they could have teleported my parents to a safer place instead of just leaving them there. Zordon told me that he and Alpha did try their best to contact me but something was preventing the signal from getting through, a powerful force field had surrounded the school to prevent Zordon from contacting me, an equally powerfully one was also around my house..My friends had no way of getting into the house to try to stop Lord Zedd. The shield had also prevented Zordon from teleporting my mother and father to safety. I was still angry at them.

"You're supposed to be the power rangers! You protect the planet each and every day from destruction from the dark forces of Lord Zedd's armies. And yet you are incapable of protecting two civilians?" I had screamed at them.

"Amy, we tried our best." Adam said.

"Yeah?" I snarled at them. "Well your best wasn't good enough, none of you even tried to get through that force field none of you tried, all of you are as guilty of killing my parents as Lord Zedd is." Tommy's eyes flashed. I stopped horrified at what I had just said.

"You guys...I'm sorry...I just..." Tommy looked at me all anger gone only sadness and sympathy.

"Look its alright all of us have gone through this before, all of us have reacted the same way toward each other, blaming each other and all of that. You have a right to be angry. We tried our best to rescue your mom and dad, but that shield... it was really powerful I tried to go through it and I got severely burned because of it." he extended out his arm and showed me the ugly burn. I extended out my hand and touched it softly, my hand began to glow, and the burn was gone.

"Thanks Amy." Tommy said. I only nodded glumly.

"Look I know you tried your hardest and I'm grateful it just that I could have prevented this myself. I knew that something bad was going to happen and tried to tell mom but she wouldn't listen. And I thought that everything would be alright if Zordon was watching her but..." Tears were sliding down my cheeks.

"Now I just wished I hadn't gone to school then maybe she would still be alive, it's all my fault...I should have stayed home." I wept, Kimberly put her arms around me and hugged me tightly. A few days later I had moved in with my sister who lived up state. She had come down for the funeral along with her husband. I kept thinking that it was lucky that my sisters and brothers didn't fall victim to Zedd's wrath, had a feeling that it was going to get worse from here on end. Despite losing my parents there was no time to grieve properly, there was still Lord Zedd to battle and monsters to destroy and the city to protect that I had to push aside mom's death to the back of my mind and that...felt...wrong. I was sure that she was angry with me but I had my duties to fulfil. I suddenly felt hatred and anger settle over me and vowed that I would make him and everyone of his followers pay. I rolled over on my side and continued to stare at the wall of my new room in my sister's apartment, my brothers had gone to live with my other two sisters who lived on the other side of town in Angel Grove. I kept wishing that I could tell them about the real reason why Zedd killed our parents and made us into orphans, but I was afraid that they would blame me for their deaths. How they would say that I should have stayed home, that I should have followed my instincts to stay home, that I should have forgotten about the math test and ditched school and kept an eye on mom, that I should have never made that bargain with Lord Zedd in the first place. If I hadn't made that bargain...then none of this would have happened I shut my eyes willing my mind to become a complete blank, I let out a sigh as I stared at the wall and enjoyed the silence. My communicator was in front of me and I glared at it as it beeped.. _Leave me alone! _It beeped a second time, I was tired of doing anything, I wanted to sleep. I wrapped my hand around my communicator, thinking that I could crush it and end the beeping once and for all.

"What is it Zordon?" I answered in a dull voice. he explained that on the south side of Angel Grove my friends were losing a battle with Goldar, Rito and a monster. I roused slightly, then settled back.

"Zordon, no offense but I'm not up to a battle today. I'm tired of people telling me what to do and I don't want any lectures. My parents have just been killed, my family is scattered I've had no time to mourn for them and I just...I just want to be left alone."

"Amy...There is no time for..."

"I SAID LEAVE ME ALONE, I AM NOT UP FOR A FIGHT!" I shouted not at all caring whether or not my sister heard me.

"Amy, listen to me. I know that it is unfair to ask you to come back and do your duty especially after your life is shattered but you have to continue to fight. Lord Zedd will see the state that you are in and attack you and the rest of your family, think about your mother Amy. How do you think she would feel knowing that you had just given up?"

I sighed then rolled to a sitting position, I stood up.

"Its morphin time! Yellow ranger power!" I used my anger to fuel me to help me charge toward Tengu after Tengu Warrior that stood in my way until I reached Goldar. Both of us clashed, punches thrown, kicks sent, weapons flying, blood flowed. I didn't know if it was my blood that was flying or my mom's blood, my pain that I felt or my mom's pain, all that I was aware of was that I was yelling and screaming out my anger and my growing hatred for my former master now turned enemy, toward my friends, toward myself. I'm not sure what happed to the monster, but I think it was destroyed, I wasn't really paying attention, all of it was focused on Goldar. Rito was busy dueling Tommy and the others the Tengu Warriors had taken off, Rito managed to shake off my friends and vanish. Goldar, just as I was about to put my dagger through his head vanished. I let an angry scream.

"GOLDAR, COME BACK HERE YOU COWARD AND FACE ME!!" I screamed up at the sky, I stood there for a moment panting, I whipped around and glared at my friends.

"Leave me alone." was all I said before teleporting back to my sister's.


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4

For several weeks after the battle with Goldar I thought of nothing but revenge, that and training as hard as I could as much as I could to bring my former master and his army down. I would often dream of the day when Lord Zedd and I would have a one on one battle. I wanted to train day and night with no interruptions but my sister kept getting in the way. Asking me these annoying questions : Was I alright? What's wrong? Why won't I talk to her? I tried to hold onto my tongue and my temper but one day I completely lost it and screamed at her to leave me alone and I ran out of the house with my sister standing in the doorway calling my name over and over again, to please come back and talk to her. But I didn't go back, I didn't want to talk to anyone, I just wanted to be left alone. Why was that so hard to understand? I held onto my anger and my growing hatred for everyone around me as my feet continued to pound the pavement. This anger. It felt good. It would help me kill Lord Zedd, it would help me push people away. To keep the people that I love and care about safe. Then I can be alone, finally alone to do what I wanted, and nobody will tell me what to do ever again or get in my way. To be alone and not surrounded by people always asking questions, always trying to get into my head. To be alone. With no one around. _No one around._ I slowed to a walk and leaned against a tree panting, trying to slow the fast beating of my heart. _Alone. Mom was alone when she was killed but only for a short while._ From the police reports and from what I had heard from the media my dad had been found near the living room doorway, he had walked in on Lord Zedd killing mom. Dad had been killed as well._ If I continue to work at trying to be alone...then I'll end up like mom and dad. _I thought about my desire for revenge, _revenge...it's a lot like anger and hatred...with those two things on my mind..._I will end up alone, I will end up like my parents. I_ don't want that._ I continued to walk and think, by nightfall I had returned to my sister's. I stood before the front door, took a deep breath and knocked on the door signaling my returning. My sister opened the door and hugged me tightly asking me why I had ran?

What was wrong? She stopped her questions when I took her hand and led her to the living room couch and told her that I wanted to go back to Angel Grove, I told her that I needed my friends to cope with the death of our parents and that I was miserable here. Harsh words I knew but if it was the only way for me to get back to Angel Grove and redeem myself of the blood that I spilled and protect the rest of my family then so be it. I told her half truths, telling her lies and trying not to hurt her too badly. She stared at me for a couple of moments blinking back tears and trying not to cry. I told her that I already contacted my friend Kimberly Hart, and she agreed to let me live with her.

"I–is this what you want?" she asked. _No!_ I inwardly screamed. But I nodded, fighting the urge to spill everything to her.

"I–I need to think about this." She said and she left the room, closing her bedroom door behind her. I continued to sit there in the living room and stare out the window. _I have to do this, if this is the only way to protect my sister..._ During several battles she nearly got caught in the crossfire and she had gotten badly hurt. I had attacked Goldar, nearly killing him the process but he had taken off, the coward! Ignoring the blood that I had on my hands and on my suit I walked toward my sister and healed her, then silently I had walked away. _But the way she looked at me..._ _I don't want her to look at me that way ever again not her or my friends._ I made a resolve that I will never tell anyone my secret.

I breathed a sigh and buried my head in my hands. _I have to do this, I have to, so my sister and her husband will not get killed, won't be punished for my crimes._ I straighten up then went into my room and lay down on the bed and stared at the wall miserably.

A day later Tommy, with his truck arrived at my sister's door, without speaking he helped me pack all of my boxes and suitcases in to the bed of the truck, I helped out a bit, what I really wanted to do was teleport myself to Zedd's palace and confront him face to face and kill him. But I wasn't ready, not yet anyway. Sorrow filled me as I hugged my sister and her husband and kissed them on the cheek, I forced myself to let go and climb in the truck alongside Tommy and we drove away. I watched as the house grew smaller and smaller and finally disappeared when we rounded a corner.

"You alright?" Tommy asked quietly. I shook my head silently and closed my eyes forcing away the tears that threaten to come out. _I can't break down, I can never break down!_ I held on to my anger and my hatred for Lord Zedd and stomped down on the sadness and grief. A few hours later we were back in Angel Grove. We were soon in front of Kimberly's house, Tommy, parked and turned off the ignition, I didn't make a move to open my door. I continued to stare at my hands, second guessing my decision. I shook my head then taking a deep breath I unbuckled my seat belt and got out of the truck, then going to the truck bed I got down one box then made my way up to Kimberly's house and rang her door bell..


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5

Kimberly was understanding and she would often leave me alone, for which I was grateful. But soon I began to want company. Several times I would join her when she would be watching tv or cooking or washing dishes. The only problem living in her house was that we had separate rooms. I was used to sleeping with someone else across the room from me, but I didn't want for Kimberly to think that I was some little scaredy cat afraid of the dark, so I slept in a room by myself. It felt lonely in there, but I knew in time I would get used to it. The thing that scared me other than the dark, was the thought that when I was asleep, Lord Zedd would attack.. It took a couple of nights to restrain myself from begging Zordon and Alpha if I could sleep in the Command Center, I have never been so afraid in my life. I would welcome the safety of the morning and being around the others whom I began to consider my friends. I would spend time with Ninjor, since I wanted to know him a bit better and the more I learned about him the more I liked him. Whenever I had free time I would often teleport myself to the Command Center explore the outside and inside and ask questions about the zords and how they worked and the different kinds of buttons that the Command Center had, Zordon and Alpha would answer my questions with patience. I was getting more and more better at my martial arts but I wasn't as good as Tommy or Rocky, still I would practice hard and try my best. I would often think about my revenge but I wouldn't let the others know, I would also often think that I should be training every chance I got but...I didn't. The others would stop me from over training, so I would only train after school after I had finished my homework. It frustrated me but if I over trained then I would tire myself out and be of no use in battle. And if I used my powers during the battles then I would still wear myself out and that would not bode well with me if Lord Zedd got his payback first instead of me.

I wanted to talk all this out with someone, but my friends would only try to discourage me from over training, they would say "Amy don't do this," or "You'll wear yourself out if you keep this up." I seriously didn't want to hear any of it, so I chose to tell this all to my parents. It was a little awkward at first since I had never talked to a dead person before but I got over it by pretending that my mom and dad were standing before me. Sure they never talked back, but it was nice that they listened. Other than telling my parents about my plans for revenge I ended up telling them about being recruited and replacing the former yellow ranger, it felt good to tell them my secret. I had always felt guilty when I had to make up excuses or had to beat a hasty retreat because Lord Zedd was attacking the city. _I'm not exactly breaking the rules here, my parents are dead so they can't tell anyone. Besides this is helping me right? Right._ I couldn't tell them my other secret though, it felt...I don't know...wrong in a sense. I guess it was because that if I told them then they would be disappointed in me. I didn't feel like it was...the right time to tell them, maybe someday I'll tell them, after I've redeemed myself and gotten my revenge.

Talking to my parents helped me figure out a few things:1) that I was no longer afraid of being punished, not by Zordon or Tommy anyway, they weren't like that, 2) I was still deathly afraid of my former master and Goldar and Rito, and 3) I know where Lord Zedd's new power came from! He got this new power from me!

The others were pretty shocked when I told them. I told them how I felt a connection whenever Goldar or Rito would fire a fireball or eye lasers at us.

"It is my power that they are using against us." I said. Tommy looked at me and I flinched under his gaze.

"How did Lord Zedd get his hands on your locket?" he demanded. I swallowed hard.

"He kidnaped me a couple of months before I met you guys, he didn't actually get his hands on it, he just...used his staff and extracted power from it."

"Extracted?" Billy asked. I scowled at him.

"Yes! Extracted! I didn't give it to him willingly he took it by force! I tried to fight but I really couldn't stand up to that staff." _I'm pretty sure I can stand up to it now._

"Do you know how much power he took from you?" asked Adam. I shook my head.

"No, but after he was done it would always feel as if I didn't have any strength left." _Like I was going to die any moment._ I bowed my head.

"I'm sorry." I whispered. I began to tremble, remembering the pain of having that power being taken from me, it always felt like my body was being ripped in two, sometimes I could still hear him laughing while I screamed.

"I'm surprised that he let me live this long and that he didn't take all of it."

"Maybe he couldn't handle all of that power all at once." Rocky said softly. Kimberly put her arm around me and gave me a squeeze, while I muttered agreement. Even though I have had this locket for a couple of years now and was just learning how to really use the power inside it, it packed a serious punch, I remember this one time when I opened it to see if there was anything in it and this bolt of yellow power shot out and punched a small hole in the wall of my room, I had a hard time trying to cover it up and keeping it a secret from my parents. Since then I've been afraid to opening it all the way. It was powerful and yet dangerous at the same time.

"How long was he extracting power from you?" asked Tommy, I looked at him. I fought against the tears and shoved back the horrible memories of being called on again and again to give my master more power. More power he had shouted. I mumbled something along the lines of a couple of months.

"But after each battle he would run out of power and would call...I mean kidnap me to get more."

"And now?" asked Billy.

"The only thing he's tried so far is to kill me, which means..." I shrugged my shoulders.

"Which means he must have found a way to conserve it somehow or he's found a way to combine it with his own power, which gives him and his army..." Tommy said.

"Unlimited power." finished Adam. Tears slid down my cheeks.

"Amy don't feel bad, its not you're fault." said Kimberly.

"Yes it is!" I wailed I was openly crying now.

"Its all my fault that the other yellow ranger died and its my fault that we are barely surviving any of the battles now." I nearly told them about my secret but I bit my tongue.

"Short stuff, it is not your fault, Zedd's magic is super strong even without your power to add to it. Don't beat yourself up over this." _If only you knew Rocky._ Kimberly tried to cheer me up by saying that now the odds are even, Zedd may have super strong powers now but the power rangers have the same power and we were going to use it to beat Lord Zedd. I smiled at her. I decided not to tell them anymore they would never find out what sort of stuff I had to endure when "my master needed more power."

But they did find out.

A few nights later, Kimberly invited the boys over to the house for pizza and sodas. The boys arrived and so did the pizzas. I had just gotten out of the bath tub and was drying my hair with a towel.

"Amy the pizzas are here." called Kimberly.

"Okay, I'll be right down." I called to her as I slipped some underwear on, steadying myself by leaning against the sink I slipped into my sweats, then with a towel wrapped around my chest I made my way to my bedroom. Entering it I turned and closed the door then letting the towel drop to the floor, I went over to my bed sat down and put on my socks, I had my back to the door as I stood up and walked over to the fallen towel and began to pat my back dry.

"Hey Amy what's...?"

Kimberly stopped dead and stared at me, I whirled to face her while covering up the front of my body with my towel. Before I could say anything she took off down the stairs, grabbing a t-shirt from my bed I take off after her. I reach the bottom of the stairs and dart into the kitchen. I stop in the doorway looking at all of my friends. Tommy steps forward and I take a step back, suddenly afraid. Rocky grabs Tommy's arm and steps forward himself.  
"Short stuff, what's this we hear about you having scars on your back?" I swallow hard feeling ashamed of myself. _They've been so good to me and here I am not being truthful. Some friend I'm turning out to be._ I take a deep breath then ask them all to come into the living room with me. After everyone makes themselves comfortable I take another deep breath and with heart pounding I tell them where the scars came from.  
"The scars came from a whip that Lord Zedd would use on me, Goldar, and Rito would beat me whenever I would try to fight back or run away. They would do that to me whenever Lord Zedd would extract power from me. I could only heal the cuts and the bruises that they gave me but not the whip marks, I can't really take a shower because they start to hurt really bad, I can only take baths." Tommy and the boys had a look of pure anger on themselves.  
"I didn't tell you guys about this because...he told me not to tell...and even if I did tell someone no one would believe me, that's what he said."  
"Obviously Lord Zedd doesn't know the power rangers very well because we believe you." Adam said quietly. I gave him a sad smile, I took another deep breath and was about to tell them my horrible secret when I felt a sharp pain in my chest and a voice in my head. _If you even breath one more word to them about me, I will kill the rest of your family before you can even blink._ In my mind's eye a picture popped into my head. I saw both of my sister's houses and right outside waiting for his command was Goldar, Rito and a horde of Tengus. I began to tremble and what I was about to tell my friends died in my throat. The picture vanished with my enemies backing away.  
"Amy are you okay?" someone asked. I started then nodded saying I must have zoned out a bit because I was hungry. Standing up I made my way to the kitchen leaving my friends to talk among themselves, in the kitchen I leaned against a wall and stayed there for a few minutes, then grabbing a slice of pizza from the pizza box that was on the kitchen counter I returned to the living room.


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter 6

After looking at my back and hearing the description of the whip, Zordon concluded that the whip had dark magic surrounding it which wouldn't allow me to heal my scars. But he told me that he and Alpha would look for a cure. _No offense Zordon, but I highly doubt you'll find one._ I thought to myself. Looking up at him I told him about how I could only take baths because if I take a shower I would get this intense pain in my back, and asked him if he knew the answer to that question. He looked down at me and shook his head.

"I don't have an answer to that Amy. Perhaps Lord Zedd does but I doubt he would give us the answer without asking for something in return." I glared up at him. _You are supposed to have all of the answers!_ I silently shouted up at him.The others had told me time and again that Zordon had an answer to everything, and now here he was with no answers on how to fix my problem. _Maybe he and Alpha don't have the answers to everything. _

I didn't say anything only nodded. Instantly feeling bad for thinking that way about my mentor and friend.

_There are just some things that even the smartest person doesn't even know._ I spent the rest of the day with my friends at the park munching on a piece of chocolate and thinking.

The next day I went to the cemetery wanting to clear my thoughts and have my mind empty for once. I approached my parents graves and spoke to them about what had gone on in the Command Center, my feelings toward Zordon, the disappointment that I felt toward him and my instant shameful feelings for thinking that way. After I finished talking with them I began to walk around the cemetery, looking at all of the tombstones and reading the names and the dates that were on each and every stone. As I walked from row to row I couldn't help but wonder which of these tombstones was the former yellow rangers'. _Maybe if I concentrate I can sense her and I'll find out what her name was._ Lord Zedd never told me what her name was, always telling me (or shouting at me) that it didn't matter what name the rangers were called, and I never asked my friends. They would want to know why and I thought that if I told them I wanted to know just out of curiosity, it would seem a bit weird. _Do I really want to know who she was? _I was curious, and yet... I took a deep breath and began to concentrate, picturing the yellow ranger in my mind. My feet began to led me forward. I felt something pulling me along until I was standing in front of a tombstone that was shaped like an angel. Opening my eyes and looking down at the marker. AISHA CAMPBELL. _That name, it rings a bell_. I tried to remember where I've heard that name before. _That's funny, I can't remember any of the rangers calling out to each other by name whenever we battled. _

"Were you the yellow ranger?" I whispered. As I placed my hand on the angel's head. pain instantly shot through me! I threw back my head to scream but within it played that awful night._ No! No! I don't want to remember! I was back inside my monster body_,_ blasting at the rangers, watching them scream as they flew through the air and fell to the ground. They got up and charged at me. Standing still I waited until the last minute then I swung both of my claws catching two of the rangers, who were in front of me, and sweeping them off of their feet, then hitting the ground and flipping the others head over heels, so that they landed on their backs on each side of me. Then I saw her. My quarry, my victim. The yellow ranger, she was trying to stand but it looked like she was on her last leg. Inside I was screaming at myself not to kill her, I have to kill her if I don't then my family will be killed. I have to do this. No! I don't want to, I have to! I stared down at the yellow ranger and I saw underneath her mask. Her eyes were wide and frightened. I raised my claw high. Forgive me. And brought it down. I heard the rangers screaming, Goldar was laughing. _Then I was back in the cemetery, I was on my knees and crying, and at the same time I was trying to erase from my mind what I had seen what I heard, erase what I had done. I stumbled to my feet and started to run from the cemetery when Zedd appeared in front of me.

"So you found out eh? Well I can't say that I'm surprised you were a curious little brat. Since you wanted to find out who the former yellow ranger was, perhaps you would also like to find out how your friends reactions would be once you told them that you were the one that killed her!" Tommy, Adam, Rocky, Billy and Kimberly appeared out of nowhere and had surrounded me. They were glaring at me with rage and hatred.

"You...its because of you that we lost this war, it because of you that Angel Grove is destroyed." screamed Tommy.

"When you told us, all of us went into shock and we just stood there like statues while Lord Zedd killed everyone and everything in Angel Grove." yelled Kimberly.

"Everyone wanted to know where we were. Where were the Power Rangers?" shouted Billy.

"Everyone blames us for not being there to stop Lord Zedd from destroying everything." Adam bellowed.

"But we know who's fault it is." shouted Rocky.

"Its all your fault! You're to blame!" They screamed at me, pointing their fingers at me.

"You're to blame." I shut my eyes and clapped my ears shut but I could still hear them.

"No! No! No!" Suddenly I was filled with anger and hurt, I leapt to my feet and began to lash out at them. They vanished as soon as I punched Tommy. I turned to Lord Zedd.

"Where are they? I want them to pay for what they said to me, I thought they were my friends."

"They will be along in a few moments then you can take out your feelings on them. Are you glad that I showed you?"

"Yes, I am glad. I thought that they would be understanding but they aren't."

"And they never will be. In order to not be hurt by your friends you have to get rid of them."

I nodded, I wanted them to stop them yelling at me, I wanted them to stop pointing their fingers at me. I could hear them now, calling my name and something else. I turned toward Lord Zedd he had vanished. I turned toward my friends and began to run toward them and began to attack them. They had to morph and had to work hard to try to defend themselves. I used all of the anger, hurt and hatred that I had within me to hurt them. I had my hands around Kimberly's throat and was busily straggling her when I froze.

"Amy!"

"Amy stop!."

"Short stuff, snap out of it!" It triggered something, hearing my friends calling my name. Instead of hatred and rage in their voices I heard worry, concern and pleading. I felt something shove through my brain, it was a feeling. It was a warm and nice feeling. I felt that way whenever I was around my friends, I had never had friends before, and I was really glad to have some right now.

_Tommy Rocky Adam Kimberly. They are my friends, they are not my enemies. Not my enemies. _I cried out when I realized what I was doing, releasing Kim I watched her as she began to cough trying to get some breath back in her lungs.

"Kimberly!! Oh my god Kimberly! What have I done?" I put my hands on Kim's neck and healed her, I was crying as she sat up and we hugged.

"Look out!" Shouted Rocky as he and the others were blasted and scattered by a wave of dark magic. I produced a shield around my friends as I leapt to my feet and began to battle with Zedd, he managed to sweep my off my feet and I fell on my back. I was about to flip onto my feet when I felt my body go stiff! _I can't move!_ Using his staff Lord Zedd turned my body around until I was lying on my stomach, I began to try to fight the spell but before I could even manage to lift it, I felt a searing pain in my leg! I let out a scream as Zedd brought down his staff on my ankle and inserted the sharp end of his staff directly into the bone! My friends were trying to get to me but the shields that were protecting them were holding them back! I lost my concentration, the pain! The shields went down and my friends charged forward, but Zedd had already vanished. I was withering on the ground and trying to take away the terrible pain but my healing powers, they weren't working! The pain was too much and I blacked out.

As I lay resting on a couch in the Command Center, Kimberly who was by my side got my hand and gave it a squeeze.  
"Don't worry, she'll be alright. She just needs some rest." Alpha said. Kimberly turned to him and nodded then turned back to me.  
"Zordon, what went on at the cemetery? Why did Amy attack us?" Tommy asked.  
"I don't have all the details Tommy, what we do know is that Amy was placed underneath a spell. What kind of spell we have yet to find out."  
"What about her ankle? What did Zedd do to it?" asked Rocky. Billy answered the question by reading a printout.  
"There was some kind of poison in Zedd's staff. Its not lethal or anything, its just that its incurable, it's mostly concentrated in her ankle area."  
"Great, first the scars and now this? How is Amy going to deal with this?" asked Rocky.  
"If we are there for her and help her out if she needs it, she should cope just fine." Billy said. Adam frowned slightly.  
Tommy walked over to me and after breathing a sigh said.  
"I wish she could tell us what happened today." As if in response to his question I stirred and let out a moan.  
"I don't want to...please I don't want to...don't turn me into...into..." I began to cry. "Don't kill them! Don't please! I'll do what you say!" Kimberly turned to the others with frighten eyes, Tommy and the others were staring at me while I shifted on the couch. Tommy took a deep breath kneeling down beside me and murmured.  
"Amy, what happened at the cemetery?" I let out another moan.  
"Master he showed me, he showed me who she really was. Made me relive that terrible night."  
"What night?"  
"The night that I killed the yellow ranger, Aisha Campbell." The others stiffen, Zordon closed his eyes.  
"She died by my hands, I didn't want to kill her, but I had to. My parents, Master was going to kill them if I didn't..." I began to cry even more harder revealing to them the vision of what would happen if I ever told. The rangers in shock, Angel Grove destroyed, the rangers blaming me for everything that led to Lord Zedd's victory. I began to beg them for forgiveness.  
"I had no choice...he was too powerful...didn't want to get punished anymore...had no choice...wasn't strong enough..." my voice faded away as I fell into a deep and troubled sleep. For a few moments the Command Center was silent, then Zordon quietly teleported me back to my room. He looked down at his rangers. Kimberly had tears streaming down her face, Rocky wore a shocked look, Tommy looked about ready to rip someone apart, Billy was looking down at the printout muttering under his breath. Adam was the first to speak."W--Why would she think that she killed Aisha? She didn't kill her. Goldar did, we all saw him."  
"I did a scan on her brain just now, there seems to be some sort of spell."  
"A spell?" said Rocky in surprise looking at his friend. Billy nodded.  
"Yes, it looks like it's a false memory spell. Its pretty strong I don't think its breakable."  
"What did Lord Zedd do to her?" asked Kimberly. Billy paused, glanced at Tommy and said.  
"Well from what Amy said it seems that Zedd recruited her to kill the yellow ranger, every time she failed, she was punished. She was probably physically abused. When she "killed" Aisha, Zedd must have had implanted that false memory in her brain so that she thought that memory was hers, when in reality Goldar was the one that preformed the deed. After Amy did what she was told to do, Lord Zedd must have made her swear not to tell anyone and that included the power rangers or else we would turn against her."  
"And that her parents would be killed." Rocky said. Billy nodded grimly.  
"She jumped at the chance to be a power ranger seeing as how she could redeem her self for what Zedd made her do and she could also protect her parents. But when Lord Zedd got to them..."  
"That was a complete letdown for her. She's finally coming to terms that even though we're super heroes, we're only human." said Adam.  
"Those scars, they weren't given because Amy didn't give Lord Zedd enough of her power, they were given because she didn't succeed in killing Aisha." Tommy's teeth were clenched as well as his hands.  
"When I get my hands on that Lord Zedd..."  
"Is that why Goldar attacked us on that day when we were walking home from school? Was he afraid that since I was with Amy, she had already found out who I really was and had told me of what she had done?" asked Kimberly. Billy looked thoughtful, but then Alpha spoke up.  
"No, When Goldar saw you and Amy together Kimberly, Zedd must have thought that she had already turned traitor and had joined up with the rest of us."  
"If you hadn't been with her Kim..." Tommy's voice trailed off. Rocky turned to Zordon.  
"I think we should tell her what really happened, get her free of the mess that she's in." The others nodded in agreement but Zordon vetoed it.  
"Amy's state of mind right now is on the brink, she still thinks that all of you will hurt her if the "truth" is revealed." Billy scowled.  
"That's ridiculous, we would never hurt Amy."  
"Yes, but she doesn't know that. Lord Zedd's influence over her is still very powerful, its waning but still very much so. If you tell her what really happened that night right after she wakes up, she could be damaged, and that would make her an easy target for Lord Zedd."  
"No way! I'm not letting Amy beat herself up for something that she had no part of!" shouted Rocky.  
"Rocky," said Adam quietly. "That monster that would attack us, that was her."  
"I know that! Its not right and its not fair! She shouldn't have anything hanging over her head."  
"Rocky I agree with you but I also agree with Zordon. If we tell Amy what really happened so soon after viewing that...that nightmare that Lord Zedd showed her it could take her over the edge, I don't want to lose another friend to Lord Zedd." Tommy said.  
"Besides she agreed to fight alongside us and if we tell her she might not what to fight with us anymore, we need her. Lord Zedd is too powerful and her power is right we need right now." Tommy paused. Then said.  
"We could tell her when the time is right, but not now." Rocky still wanted to let me know what really happened but at the same time he was afraid of my reaction and what my state of mind would be if I did know. He gave a sigh.  
"Alright Tommy. We won't tell her." 


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter 7

I woke up and looked around, confused for a moment, I wondered where I was. My night light was on. _I'm in my room. How did I get here?_ I struggled to remember what had happened that led to my being in my room. _I remember going to the cemetery to talk to mom...something happened. _My mind didn't want me to remember, I decided not to pursue it, instead I focused my attention on the silence that seemed to be loud to me. My stomach rumbled. _I wonder what time is it?_ Twisting around so that I was facing my clock, to my surprise I saw that it was 6pm! _I must have slept the whole day away._ I pulled off the covers thinking that I would get something to eat. To my surprise I saw that my right ankle had a bandage. I stared at it for a bit, them gently I reached out with my fingers and ran them over the bandage. I closed my eyes as the memories of what happened earlier engulfed my mind. I smiled bitterly._ If I can fall underneath a spell that easily then that means that I'm not really free. _I thought of my friends._ I hope that they are all right._ I swung my legs off of the bed and put both feet on the ground and stood up. I let out a yell as pain shot up my right ankle, I flopped back into bed and clutched my ankle willing for the pain to go away. But it didn't, it was a little while until the pain went away by itself and I was left whimpering and shaken on my bed with tears streaming down my eyes. After taking a few deep breaths and wiping the tears from my eyes, I heaved a sigh. I stood up again careful not to put any weight on my ankle, I looked toward my door which was closed. It seemed so far away. Squaring my shoulders and holding on to the wall for support I made my way toward the door, putting my hand to the knob and turned it, I opened the door and limped out into the hall. Walking the short distance to the stairs I looked down them, they seemed treacherous and dangerous. I took a deep breath and, clutching the banister tightly, I went down the stairs slowly. Reaching the first floor of the house, I made my way to the kitchen, half expecting to see my mother in there washing the dishes. A wave of disappointment and disgust came over me when I saw that the kitchen was empty. _Mom is dead! So stop looking for her!_ I sat down in a chair and breathed a sigh. I couldn't help but think that I would get kicked off the team because of my leg, if I could barely make it across a room then how was I going to fight monsters? I would be a burden to the other rangers. _And a burden is not what they need right now._ I was about to get up and rummage around the fridge for something to eat when I heard the lock on the door turn, my body stiffen, I was half expecting it to my sisters or Lord Zedd. But no, I heard the voices of two of my friends: Kimberly and Billy. They seemed to be talking about something and I heard the rustling of paper, both of them entered the kitchen and stopped when they saw me.

"Hey." I said to them, Billy looked taken aback that I had gotten out of bed, he went over to me and put the grocery bag, which was full of groceries, down onto the table and crouched in front of me. He looked into my eyes. Kimberly did the same and proceeded to pull the groceries from both bags and put them away.

"Amy are you okay?" he asked. At first I didn't know how to answer, but I decided to answer half truthfully, the way that Billy was looking at me...and Kimberly, even though she had her back toward us, her face was a bit puffy and I saw her blink back a couple of tears.

"Yeah, I'm alright Billy, just really hungry." Billy smiled in relief, Kimberly turned and told Billy to take me into the living room and she'll be there in a bit with food. Billy got my upper arm and helped me to my feet and telling me to lean against him, we both made our way to the living room. There I sank into a couch and Billy sat down and put my right leg in his lap. He began to unravel the bandages and looked at the scar, he frowned slightly and asked me several questions.

"Did it hurt when you woke up?"

"No, only when I stood up. When I stood up that's when it started to hurt." Billy looked at me waiting for me to go on.

"It was like fire shot up my leg, it stopped hurting a few minutes after I sat down, when I stood up the second time, I put all of my weight on my left ankle and limped across the room and made it down the stairs."

"Hmm. So it only hurts when you put weight on it?"

"Yeah." I said as the smell of food wafted into the room, my stomach rumbled. I looked at Billy suddenly wondering if he was going to report this to Tommy and Zordon. _Of coarse he is. Don't be stupid._

"Do you remember what happened?" asked Billy. _All too clearly. _I decided to lie and told them that I only remembered going to the cemetery, talking to mom and then getting jumped by Lord Zedd and falling underneath his spell and attacking my friends. I didn't mention the fact about that horrible vision of Angel Grove in pieces around me, my friends accusing me nor of the fact that I had relived a memory that I have been trying extremely hard to forget.

"I'm sorry that you had to go through that." Kimberly came in with a tray that had some chicken and mashed potatoes("pre-cooked." she said,.) And a glass of water, she put the tray on my legs and both of them watched as I ate. After filling my stomach I asked them if both of them and the rest of the team were okay, Kimberly told me that they were okay, not too badly hurt. _Liar._ But I forced a smile on my face and nodded and apologized for attacking them. Billy shrugged his shoulders and muttered something that sounded like

"It's not the first time that we've been attacked by a friend." I blinked but decided not to ask. He was wrapping my ankle back into a bandage saying that I should probably keep off it for a couple of days, so even through I would have my ranger duties to attend to he advised that I stay home from school. I breathed a silent sigh of relief, glad that I wasn't going to be kicked off the team. I nodded to Billy and Kimberly told me that she'll tell the school principal, Mr. Kaplan, that I had caught a small bug but should be fine in a couple of days and that she'll bring my homework. I cringed inwardly, I was hoping for a couple of homework free days. Billy told me that he had promised Tommy that he would call him once Billy had seen that I had woken up, after making the call on his communicator, Tommy, Adam and Rocky wanted to come straight over. Zordon called also, to say that he was glad that I was alright and that Alpha was too. I wnated to aask them about my ankle, why did it hurt when I put wieght on it and why couldn't I heal it? But decided that those questions could wait until another day._ I'll probably figure some ofd them out myself. _I was looking forward to making Zedd pay for forcing me to relive that horrible night and for making me attack my friends._ At least one good thing came out of this. _I thought as I smiled grimly._ The nameless ranger has a face and a name, and I will avenge her death. _


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter 8

Over the next few days while I stayed at home, rested and recovered from my injuries, glad of the break from school and glad for the alone time. I could think about what I've gone through. First off the memory was still clear and fresh in my mind and the only way to deal with what I've been through was to look at it head on. Yes, I knew that someday Zedd would make me relive that horrible night, remind me that I was bound by oath not to tell anyone about the way that I was treated while I was his slave. Even if I was free and I did tell my friends what I had done, he had installed the fear within me that they would kill me out of revenge. Secondly I wasn't entirely sure what Lord Zedd showed me was an illusion, he had been battling the power rangers for a pretty long time now, he knew them, he knew how they would react to certain situations. Me? I've only known them for a few weeks and even though I called them my friends I still felt unsure around them. I felt that they expected more of me, that I would lead them to victory, that I would pave the way to Zedd's downfall. That is the only reason that they and Zordon recruited me right? They expected nothing but the very best of me right? They expected for me and my powers to be more stronger than Lord Zedd's magic, but they'll be disappointed when they find out that my powers an I are not stronger than Zedd. But I must have faith in myself, I know that as time passes my powers will grow stronger and so will I. Soon there will be nothing standing between me and getting my revenge on Lord Zedd. Right now my power is nothing compared to his. I will get stronger, I will make amends to Aisha Campbell and I will redeem myself and I will take Lord Zedd down.

Billy had told me that the reason I couldn't heal my ankle was because there was a poison within Zedd's staff that is incurable and that would leave scars. _Just like my back._ I thought. _The whip that he used on me must have been coated in the same poison. _

"We'll look for a cure all the same, in the mean time, you'll have a bit of difficulty fighting but all of us will working with you so that you will be able to fight like the rest of us." said Tommy. I smiled at him grateful.

It felt a little strange going back to school, more stranger to be limping down the halls and having kids come up to you and asking what had happened. Kimberly had told me that when asked, that I twisted my ankle while trying to teach myself how to roller blade. People brought it, including the teachers. I had to walk a bit more slower to class so as to not put too much weight on my ankle, and the teachers were very understanding. I sat out in Gym class. _I guess there are some perks to having an ankle that's filled with an incurable poison. _I thought as I watched the rest of my classmates run laps, I joined in when we preformed stretches, sit ups and push ups and pull ups, but I couldn't join in the games of soccer, baseball, basket ball, volley ball and badminton. I refused to think that I was even more different than everyone else._ I'm not. It's just that not every one goes through the kinds of things that I'm going through right now._ I haven't been back at the cemetery since, fearing of another attack if I set foot in there. I felt a little bad, thinking that mom and dad were probably wondering where I was, and wondering why I wasn't visiting them anymore. The others began to get worried when they found out that I was going to the cemetery after school today. They tried to talk me out of it saying that I have been going to the cemetery mush too often, but I ignored them. So they told Zordon, he had a frank talk with me about visiting my parents daily, saying that it wasn't at all good for me and that I should limit my visits to once a week, at first I glared at him and protested that _it was_ good for me, I was telling mom and dad everything that I wasn't able to while they were still alive because of the rules that I was made to follow.

"I'm not really breaking the rules, my parents won't be able to tell anyone because they're dead, and the dead can't really talk can they?" I blinked back tears. Zordon looked down at me.

"Its not fact that you are not breaking the rules that has me worried, its you that I'm worried about, you've only been a ranger for a few weeks and a lot has happened to you. The other rangers and I just want to make sure you are dealing with everything okay."

"I am Zordon, trust me I am. Talking with my parents helps me deal with the stuff that has been happening to me...and I know what you are going to say and yes I should be talking with the other rangers and I will...its just that..."

"You're still angry with them?" I nodded.

"Yeah, I am. I know that they all tried to save my parents and all but I can't help but think that maybe they could have done more you know?"

"I understand. There are times when I wish that we could prevent certain things from happening to the people that we love and care about, but there are some times where it is out of our hands and in the end there was nothing we could have done to prevent it." He had such a sad look on his face, I looked at him for a few minutes and I thought of something that might cheer him up.

"Um...there is a good side to having terrible things happen to us." He looked down at me surprised.

"Such as?"

"We grow stronger." Zordon looked thoughtful for a few minutes and he nodded slowly.

"Yes, yes that's true." I smiled up at him thinking I must have taken his mind off of his worries for a moment. Afer reassuring Zordon that I would visit the cemetery only once a week, I left to do some more of my martial arts training with Tommy.


	9. Chapter 9

Chapter 9

Its been three months and I was becoming more and more comfortable with my friends so that I was talking to them about my worries and fears about living up to the standards of being a power ranger. And also my fears about my powers and whether or not I would ever grow more stronger then Lord Zedd, because sometimes it felt that I wasn't getting any stronger. Billy told me not to worry, that power takes time to grow stronger. Whenever he said that I would end up worrying about some other things. Mostly about if what Billy said was true and my powers did grow stronger, then would I be able to handle them? Zordon would often tell me that I have a hard time believing in myself.

"You need to start doing that and stop doubting yourself and your abilities." The thing was the only time I began to doubt myself was when I wound up on the battle field by myself, I was used to the others being beside me or behind me, I could always count on them to bail me out whenever I got in a tight spot. That was another thing that worried me, that I would find myself in a situation and my friends would be no where to be seen. _Zordon's right, I need to start believing in myself and start standing on my own two feet and not depend on the others so much._

Another thing that would sometimes keep me awake at night was the entire situation itself. Six kids, plus a guardian of the temple that would make seven, against a vast and powerful army plus their leader who could place spells on us at any given moment; and who _could_ unleash his entire army on us was almost too overwhelming to think about. Plus it seems hopeless, I mean come on, 6 kids against an alien army? If you think about it does seem that way. Thinking about it, almost makes me want to give up and run for the hills. But I stop myself and shove the thought out of my mind, I hold my head high, pull out my power daggers and keep on fighting alongside my friends. And I would often wonder if the others have thought these very same thoughts. But I dare not ask, I guess I'm afraid of the answer. The situation which I would pray and wish would never happen, happened. It was at night and near Angel Grove Bay the attacks that Goldar and Rito were unleashing upon us were devastating, I couldn't even block them, and that wasn't the half of it, even though we managed to dodge their attacks, they would still hit their mark, I was getting really angry and scared,_ if we get hit like that one more time_. I wasn't sure how much our ranger suits could endure. Then something worse happened. Lord Zedd and his wife appeared! _Oh no!_ I kicked back a Tengu Warrior and gave a shout toward Tommy and the others.

"Tommy! Guys! Watch out! Its Lord Zedd!" Tommy who was battling Goldar turned and was struck head on by Goldar. Goldar sent a red fireball, that slammed into Tommy who slammed into Billy and both of them were on the ground right at Rito's feet! Rito raised his sword, I grabbed one of my daggers and flung it as hard as I could. The sword was inches away from Tommy's chest! Sword and dagger collided and even though my sword merely bounced off of Rito's sword, still it was enough to move it a little bit to the left, missing Tommy's chest by inches. Tommy rolled to the right, leapt to his feet and began punching and kicking Rito while Billy jumped to his feet and charged at Goldar who was busily beating up Kimberly, luckly Adam came to her rescue. Calling the dagger back to my hand I continued to beat back the Tengu Warriors, in the back of my mind I envisioned myself heading toward Lord Zedd and his wife, the tempting was great but..._No! I can't, I'm not ready._ I turned back to my battle with the Tengu Warriors. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Zedd and Rita raise both of their staffs and cross them, and fire a golden beam. At the same time Goldar and Rito both fired at me so that I was knocked down and at the same time my friends were hit with the beam. Looking up I saw that the my friends in some kind of force field that crackled as though it were made of electricity, I was about to go and help them when another fireball came my way. Dodging that I was nearly hit with a third one, dodging to the right something slammed into me. Yelling I fell to my knees then onto my stomach, whatever the blast was, it changed me back. I was in my civilian clothing, I struggled to get to my feet. _I have to morph again. Got to do something._ But my mind wouldn't work, it was as if my mind was paralyzed, distantly I heard my friends scream in pain. I recognized those screams. Those were the same screams that I myself uttered when Zedd was stealing my power, I closed my eyes trying to summon power but..._nothing came!_ I felt hands all over me, dragging me forward, I could hear Zedd, Goldar, Rita and Rito, cackling. The hands stopped dragging me, they set me on the ground, I lifted my head up a few inches and raised my eyes. _I was in front of Zedd!_ He looked down at me, raised his staff and sent electricity coursing through me. Howling in pain, I was trying to think of something I can do, to stop the pain and end this. But I couldn't! My friends were watching and they were sharing my pain! _Where the hell is Zordon? Why doesn't he get us out of here? _I turned toward the sound of my friends screams and saw that all of them were just like me, demorphed and on the ground. Ninjor looked as if he was having a seizure.

"LEAVE MY FRIENDS ALONE" I screamed, wishing that I was really powerful so that I could shove Zedd's staff down his throat. Goldar looked about ready to insert his sword into my head and it looked as if he was taking a tremendous amount of effort to hold back. Rito and Rita were both enjoying watching my friends writhing in pain.

"Your friends?" laughed Zedd, as he sent electricity through me once more and stopped only to leave me panting.

"Do you really believe that the rangers are truly your friends?" More electricity, more screaming.

"They are not your friends you know, not them and not Zordon, and not Alpha and certainly not Ninjor. Do you want to know the real reason they recruited you? They only recruited you for your power, its what they were really after, they didn't need a new ranger, they never wanted a new ranger. But Zordon instisted on it, it was the only way to get their hands on your power. They only say they like you, but in reality they don't. That's because you are a weak little girl who needs to be rescued each and every time you get in trouble. Its true, you know it is. Why, if it wasn't for your power then you wouldn't be enduring this misery. If it wasn't for your power the rangers wouldn't even give you a second glance while walking past you in the halls at school. But when Zordon told them of your power, that's when they began to notice you, they told you that they wanted to be friends with you, they told you that they needed you. When what they really wanted was your power, they don't care about you. If they did then they would have been able to save your parents, they would have been able to stop what is happening right now, but they didn't. Its because they know that the locket can never be destroyed, but its holder can. Once you are out of the way, what's to stop them from claiming the power as their own? They wanted the power not you, never you."

I was trying hard not to listen but the words entered into my mind, and hidden thoughts came forward. _He's right. They only want me for my powers, that's the main reason why they recruited me, that's why they're allowing me to go through this torture, this misery, they thought that I would give up my powers since they have caused me so much pain, so much misery. They wanted me to hand the locket over to them, its what they wanted all along. They never cared about me, only about my power, they were never my friends._ I let out an agonized yell and began to sob. But another voice in my mind began to scream at me in fury:_ Idiot!!! Who are you going to believe??!! The man that has taken your life? Your freedom? Who has shown you nothing but pain and misery and agony? The man who killed you parents? Or your friends, who believe in you, who trust you, who promised you that they would help you get stronger, who would help you redeem yourself? _I thought of the answer. _MY FRIENDS!! _Letting out a yell of rage and of fury, I dug deep within myself and brought out a power wave that blasted everyone back!! Zedd and the others let out screams as they flew through the air, I climbed to my feet, power and energy coursing through me, I limped rapidly toward the force field that held my friends. I saw that Kimberly had her eyes closed, Rocky's mouth was open in a silent scream, I had seen enough and I have had enough!! Without even thinking or realizing what I was doing, I took two steps back from the force field. Bringing my hands together with the heels of my hands against each other, I drew them back and focused all of my power and my energy. In my hands a yellow ball of light began to form, I felt heat coming from it, and I began to feed it with more power. I heard Lord Zedd and the others from far away, aiming the ball of energy at the force field, I fired! _Crash!!_ The ball smashed into the force field shattering it! I wasted no time in summoning another one, spinning around and sending it off toward Lord Zedd and his minions, they all vanished just before it reached them. _Cowards_. I went to my friends and sent a little bit of my own energy into them, thankfully all of them woke up.

"Are you all right?" I asked Tommy.

Tommy, who had managed to see the entire thing, only stared at me.

"Wow." he said. I smiled.

"I'll take that as a yes." Afer helping the others up and having them lean against each other, Zordon teleported us to the Command Center.


	10. Chapter 10

Chapter 10

All of us ended up on the ground of the Command Center.

"Rangers! Thank goodness all of you are okay." Alpha said. _Yeah, no thanks to you._ I thought to myself as I helped Rocky lean against the viewing globe, Ninjor said that he would go back to the temple and rest there, and he left. I dropped to my knees suddenly exhausted and glared up at Zordon. I quickly looked away when he caught my eye. I turned my attention back to my friends, Tommy was sitting on the floor with Kimberly's head in his lap. Adam was also sitting on the floor with his head leaned back. Billy, amazingly, was up, he pulled me up to my feet and was busy scanning me looking excited. I raised an eyebrow.

"Uh, Billy what are you doing?" My eyes followed the scanner as it moved up and down the length of my body. He looked at me as though it were obvious.

"I'm scanning your energy levels."

"Energy levels?" Billy fought hard not to roll his eyes.

"Yes Amy, your energy levels, from your body and from your powers."

"Oh." I said. But I couldn't help but think_ the guy just got back from a fight and from having nearly all of his powers drained from him and yet here he is acting like he hadn't just gotten his energy drained from him. _I looked at the rest of my friends, they only smiled and shrugged their shoulders. There was a beep from the scanner, I looked at it. Billy's eyes lit up.

"Well according to the scanner, it seems that you only used about half of your power while at the same time you only used most of your physical energy." _No wonder I can barely stand up._ I thought as I clutched the edge of the control panel. My knees buckled. Billy saw this, circled his arm around my waist and sat me down on the floor again.

"Sorry about that." I merely nodded.

"With a good long rest you should have all of your power and energy back."

Tommy looked at me.

"Where did that power come from Amy? That was amazing! Did you see the look on Goldar's face?" I laughed remembering, but I also remembered the look of pure hatred and loathing on his face._ I bet its going to tougher from here on end._ The others started to ask me the same questions wishing that they had known that I could do something like that. I started to tell them that even I didn't know I could do something like that.

"I just felt so angry that Lord Zedd would win and the things that he said to me. I started to believe him and then I just became angry at myself that I was believing him, even though I knew that they were lies. I guess all of those emotions were let loose in the form of that...that ball of energy that I unleashed."

"Why don't you show us again?" Billy started to ask.

"Later Billy." Zordon said. "Right now all of you should go home and get some rest, we could continue all of this later." All of us nodded, then we teleported to our beds and went to sleep.

Later that day, after we had gotten something to eat and had reported back to the Command Center, Billy had us all walk to the outside of the Command Center. I have never been on the outside before and was a little surprised to see that only a few scrubby bushes and shrubs were present, it looked a bit like a desert. Looking to the East I was more surprised to see that I could barely make out Angel Grove. _Talk about a secret location. _I turned my attention back to Billy who was busy studying some rocks that were 20 feet from us, all of them were of pretty average size, as far as rocks go. There were several boulders next to the rocks. Billy explained hat he had asked Alpha to teleport them to this location because he wanted to see how strong my energy blasts were. I looked at Billy's face, he had a tired look but he looked excited. I couldn't help but wonder if he and Zordon had gotten into a argument about Billy not getting the rest that he needed. As if reading my thoughts all Billy said was.

"I couldn't sleep, not after discovering that you can do something like this Amy." he had a sheepish grin on his face. He instructed the rest of the team to stand a few feet back while I stood where I was. Already knowing what he was going to say, I spread out my feet, then I brought my heels of my palms together. I wasn't entirely sure if I could re-create the blast again and told Billy so.

"Just try Amy." I breathed a sigh, suddenly feeling nervous, if I wasn't able to produce another energy blast the others would feel very disappointed in me and I would be embarrassed. I shook my head. _Stop doubting yourself._ I took a deep breath and concentrated, I summoned energy from deep inside me and I felt something stir within me, it was my power, it was adding more power to the energy that was already forming in my hands. I heard the others intake deep breaths and mutter among themselves. The power, the one that I held in my hands right now felt different, it felt warm, plus it was light as air, and yet in the back of my mind I could feel the weight of it, it was heavy with power. Yesterday, it had felt hot with all of my anger. And if I released it, it had enough power to destroy anything. _Including a staff._ I thought beginning to feel excited. I suddenly envisioned myself blasting Zedd's staff into two pieces and getting the power that he had stolen from me back. I was pulled out of my daydream when Billy said.

"Okay Amy, now I'm just going to see how much power this has." He was beside me with the scanner, after he scanned it, he took a breath.

"It has 40 of your physical energy and 25 of the energy from your powers, try to even it out Amy. " I nodded then concentrated, picturing in my mind the energy from my body and the energy from my locket to be two separate colors. Picturing my physical energy, which was blue, to shrink a bit and my energy from my power to remain the same size, little by little I managed to even my physical energy so that the amount was the same as the energy from my power.

"Good, that's it Amy, you've got it." He took a step back then instructed me to aim for the rock on the left.

"Take your time in aiming, then fire." I nodded, took aim and fired. The energy blast flew toward the rock and made contact! The rock exploded on impact, and was reduced to sand. I stared in amazement. Turning to my friends I saw that they had bewildered looks on their faces.

"Whoa."

"Awesome."

"Cool."

"Wow."

"Try it again." I glanced at Billy, who looked at me with an encouraging smile. Taking a deep breath, I concentrated all the while remembering to even out the two energies, after I destroyed a few more rocks, it was becoming a bit more easier. Billy had us all take a break. Zordon had some drinks brought to us by Alpha, courtesy of Billy, who had brought a cooler up to the Command Center filled drinks and sandwiches. As we were eating, we talked about my new power and we began to wonder if it was more powerful than Lord Zedd's power. _I highly doubt that._ I thought to myself._ Lord Zedd has had his powers even before I was born, I' ve had these powers for 2 years and I'm still learning about them._ But it was nice to think that I and my power were a lot more stronger then Zedd's. Then a shudder ran through me._ He saw that for himself yesterday, which will mean that he'll try more harder to kill me and take my power. _I shook myself out of my gloomy thoughts when Billy said that it's time we all got back to training, after going outside and destroying the boulders and getting the hang of the energy blast, and laughing at Rocky as he threw rocks up in the air and shouting

"Pull!" and me blasting them out of the sky, after that we called it a day. I was surprised that there have been no attacks from Lord Zedd today.

"We get a day off and we don't even know it." said Adam laughing.

"You must have scared Lord Zedd pretty bad short stuff with your energy blast yesterday." said Rocky. _I like to think that, in fact I would like to think that I scared Lord Zedd so much that he had left this planet, and I can resume my life as a regular teenager. But I know that's not true._

_But someday I will show Lord Zedd that he can't shove me around anymore, then he will really fear me._

A few days later, after thinking it over and talking it over with Zordon and Alpha, I decided to share this new power with my friends.

"What? You're going to–? Why? This power is yours Amy." said Tommy.

"I want to Tommybesides...I know this sounds weird but ...it feels strange that I'm the only one with this awesome power I just want it to share it with you guys, think of it as a thank you gift for everything that you guys have done for me."

"Wow, thanks Amy."Kimberly said.

"Now I already talked to Zordon and he has done some research on my power, and he told me that its transferable, but the only way for you guys to hold it is if it's held in something that has the same amount of power." The guys looked at each other thinking.

"The power coins!"

"What power are you going to give us?" asked Billy.

"Well, I was thinking of the energy blast, that way you guys will be equal to Lord Zedd, Goldar, and Rito." I extended out my handand after concentrating a yellow ball appeared in the middle of my palm, the others, who had their power coins outready and waiting, watched as the yellow ball rose several inches into the air; and broke up into 5 other balls. They went to each ranger, and hovered over the power coins for a while then the yellow balls changed colors, pink, red, white, blue and black. They slid into the power coins and they glowed momentarily then faded.

"Cool!" Rocky said an excited grin on his face. After going outside and letting the others get the hang of their new powers Adam thought that maybe our new power needed a name. We all thought up different names but none of them seemed right, we asked Alpha and Zordon but they couldn't think of any names either. For the rest of the day, and in between battles, we tried to think of names. Until finally we came up with one "The Power Ranger Power Blast", we were thrilled with the name and all of us looked forward to using this new power against Lord Zedd and his army.


	11. Chapter 11

Chapter 11

The months seemed to fly by, with all the training on the Power Ranger Power Blast and fighting off an entire new round of monsters that Lord Zedd threw at us. And me giving him a personal message that before I knew it, it was October.

"Happy Birthday to you, Happy Birthday to you, Happy Birthday dear Amy, Happy Birthday to you." sang my friends, Zordon Alpha and Ninjor. All of them cheered as I blew out the candles, I already began to cut the cake and handed out pieces to my friends. It was great having friends, having been friendless for the first 15 years of my life. Whenever I saw them or thought of them a warm glow would spread throughout my body. I smiled as they handed me presents. As I opened up my first present, my mind raced back to my last birthday party. My entire family had celebrated with music, dancing, lots of picture taking(thanks to my mom), and singing. I blinked away the tears suddenly angry at myself. _Stop crying, and stop reliving the past, you have to look at the here and now. _My brothers and sisters were going to be taking me out to eat: a family only celebration. I was looking forward to spending time with them, I would try to visit them but I would always have to cut my visits short because of my duty, but I tried to make the visit, no matter how short, count thinking that someday I would be able to tell my secret to my family. I looked down at the watch that Rocky gave me, and I grinned to myself. The only watch that I had was a Mickey Mouse watch that my dad had gotten for me when I was 11, it had stopped working after I had turned 15. I had been thinking of getting a new one, but that thought had been pushed to the back of my mind when I had made my bargain with Zedd. _I've forgotten, that I needed a new watch._ I thought to myself as I placed it onto my wrist, holding out my arm I admired it, then I gave Rocky a hug. My next present was from Adam, a set of diaries, that were really lovely, I chortled and said in a mock sad tone

"Oh Adam thank you, but it would be cruel to write in them even the paper is too pretty to write in."

"It's all right, it would be cruel not to write in them." laughed Adam. I set them to one side. Then I picked up a present from Kimberly, whom I began to think of as a sister, I let out a gasp as when I opened up the box I found butterfly earrings with a butterfly bracelet to match!

"Oh, Kimberly! They're beautiful, thank you." I put on the bracelet on my other wrist and after admiring it for a few moments I struggled to put on my earrings. Kimberly helped me out and everyone smiled as they admired them as the earrings and bracelet twinkled in the light. From Billy, a book of artwork, from famous women artists. From Tommy, a walk man. _Cool! Just what I needed. _I thought to myself, thinking of my old walk man that had broken down. I hugged my friends and thanked them for the great presents, then I waved good bye. I was supposed to meet my brothers and sisters at the restaurant in one hour. I teleported home, got ready, then met Tommy outside, he was going to drop me off. As I ate and laughed and talked with my brothers and sisters, a twinge of guilt went through me._ My family still talk and get together with each other often, and me? I can barely sit down with them and talk without being suddenly called away_. I knew that it looked like I was pushing them away by making up excuses to skip birthdays, outings and just hanging out. But I wasn't, my duty to protect Angel Grove and the planet kept me busy. _I barely have enough time for some quality time with myself._ I would make sure that the thought of me pushing away my family was at the far reaches of my mind. I would call them more than twice a week, send them letters gave them updates on what was going on in my life to the point where I made up some of the stuff that went on. But I knew that these things weren't enough, I stared down at my caesar salad and forced myself not to let my moody thoughts show on my face. Turning to my brother I forced a laugh at a dirty joke that he told us, my fake party mood turned into the real thing as the celebration went on. I was close to bursting when they brought out the cake, I managed to dodge questions that would be coming my way if I didn't eat any cake, I took a few bits, thinking that I could wrap it up and save it for later. Then came the presents.After opening up all of them and thanking my family for them, we all got up to leave. I breathed a silent sigh of thanks. _I need some time alone, being around family and friends is fun, but sometimes it can get to you._ I was looking forward to lying down alone in my bed. As my sister dropped me off in front of my house, I saw that there was a light on in the living room. _She waited up for me._ Getting out of the car and shutting the door, I gave my sister a wave goodbye as I trotted up the steps to the front door. Getting out my house key, I inserted it into the lock, turned it, unlocked the front door and stepped inside.

"Hey." Kimberly said, getting up from the couch and walking over to me and giving me a hug.

"How was it?" I let out a groan and patted my stomach.

"Great. But I don't think I'll be eating anytime soon." I said as we both sat down on the couch, on the tv was the news, talking about the power rangers once again. Kimberly giggled.

"I wouldn't worry about that, one good thing about being a power ranger is that, it provides you with exercise so that you are lean and fit after each and every battle, plus it burns calories and fat." I looked at her.

"Don't let Zordon hear you, or he'll think that we're going to advertise being a power ranger as a sure fire way to lose weight." Kimberly laughed again.

"All right, all right." I stood up, bade Kimberly good night then went upstairs to my room. As soon as I had my bed room door closed, I flopped onto my bed and enjoyed the silence. I closed my eyes a bit and let the tears flow. _If my parents were alive, Mom would have made me a special dish so we could all eat, Dad would have gotten out the kareoke machine and would have begun singing a corny song. My sisters and brothers would be complaining and I would be trying to block it out After the food, cake and presents, each of us(or at least me, and mom) would take turns singing our favorite songs_ _laughing and enjoying ourselves. _I shut my eyes, wishing I could have that back, that it was real and not just a memory.

The next day, I was staring at myself in the mirror. Turning my body this way and that I studied my reflection. _My eyes look the same, so does my mouth, and my body. _A wave of disappointment came over me and I looked at myself shrewdly. _Really, I don't get why everyone makes a big deal when it comes to turning 16 years old, I was so sure that I would have grown into a woman by now. But I still look the same way as I looked yesterday._ I leaned closer to the mirror and studied my body, not sure what I was looking for_ but expecting something!!_ I scowled, then looked down at my hands. _Everything looks the same!!!_ I inwardly wailed. _How long will it take until I turn into a woman? I don't even feel different!! I thought you were supposed to feel something after you turned 16!!! _I glared at my reflection, wishing that my body had already grown into a woman's body. _If I had a woman's body I would be physically strong and not just mentally_ _strong. _I gave a sigh. _Maybe it takes time for a body to become an adult body._ I looked at myself in the mirror again, then I began to get dressed. Just as I was combing my hair, I let out a gasp and jumped when Kimberly's voice called from below.

"Amy, breakfast!.

"Coming!" I called back. After tying my hair back into a ponytail and frowning at the small curls that rose up near my forehead, I grabbed my things, opened my bedroom door and limped out into the hall and went down the stairs. Crossing into the living room and into the kitchen Kimberly was already putting a bowl of cereal in front of my chair. Pulling out my chair and sitting down I reached for the milk and poured some onto my cereal and began to eat. Kimberly sat down and poured milk into her own bowl of cereal and began to eat as well.

"So," she said after swallowing a few mouthfuls. "You're 16 years old now Amy, how do you feel?" she had a small smile on her face. I glanced up at her then said truthfully.

"I don't feel any different from yesterday, I don't even look different."

"You were expecting to change overnight huh?"

"Yeah." Kimberly tried to hid her amusement.

"Yeah, the thing is, it takes time. Be patient, sometimes your body makes changes, sometimes you have to make the changes yourself." I gave her a small smile. Both of us fell silent as we finished eating, then after rinsing our bowls and spoons, we grabbed our things and set off for school, I told her what had gone on at the restaurant last night. Kimberly was glad that I had a good time with my family. It had been nice, spending time with them, but I could have done without all of the questions coming my way: Why did I want to stay in Angel Grove? Didn't I want to stay with my family? I had given them the same answers: For some reason Zedd was after me now, so to keep the rest of my family out of danger I had to stay in Angel Grove. Because if even if I go someplace where no one can find me...he'll find me. That was the half truth I wanted to tell them the rest of the reason but I couldn't bring myself to do it. Other than my oath to Zordon, I didn't want them to blame me for the deaths of our parents or say that I had brought this upon myself. I didn't want to be looked on as a monster.

"MS. KARMER!!" barked Ms Apple Bee, startling me out of my dark thoughts. I let out a yelp and fell out of my chair and ended up on the ground, the other kids laughed as I struggled to get back into my seat.

"Yes Ms. Apple Bee?"

"Kindly pull your head out of the clouds and answer my question." she snapped. She asked me her question and I answered. She nodded, then turned back to the blackboard and began to write down mathematical equations. Billy, who was sitting a few rows across from me, was giving me a worried look. No doubt he wanted to know what was up, and I would have to tell him. _Just to get them off my back._ I thought to myself. There was a reason why I didn't want to tell my friends everything, why I usually went to the cemetery to talk to my parents. They just listened, they didn't ask how I felt about this or that, or try to get in my head. _Sometimes a person just has to be alone. _During the first few weeks when I became a ranger, I gave the rangers space, knowing that this was a really big change for them. They needed time to get used to me and I gave them that. I just wish that they would give me the same courtesy sometimes and leave me alone. _I don't want to have to tell them every little thing that goes through my mind, but even if I tell them that they won't understand._ I thought as I limped toward lunch, dreading to see my friends. As I stepped into the cafeteria, I looked around for Kimberly and the others. When I didn't see them, I breathed a silent sigh of relief._ Good, maybe I could have some peace and quiet._ I started to look for a table when my communicator beeped. _Please let it be a monster is attacking Angel Grove, please please please. _I spun and exited out of the cafeteria, I limped as fast as I could to the girls room, went in and after checking to see that there was no one in the stalls, I answered my communicator.

"Amy here."

"Amy, a monster is attacking people at the Angel Grove museum of art, you and the other rangser must get there immediately."

_Yes! Thank you Lord Zedd._

"Right, have the others meet me there."

"Good luck."

"Its Morphin Time! Yellow Ranger Power!" I found myself at the museum, near Angel Grove Plaza. I looked around, the place was deserted, there was no people, no monster. _Did Zordon teleport me in the wrong place? _I looked at the sign that was in front of the building.

"Angel Grove Museum Of Art, this is it." _But where's the—?_ I let out a yell and barely dodged a fireball plus an energy ball that came in 2 different directions! I began to flip backward as fast as I could, while the 2 attacks continued to follow me! In mid flip something snagged me by my foot and I fell. The two attacks slammed into me head on before I could even move. Goldar landed down a few feet away from me, Rito jumped down from his perch from the roof top of the museum and landed beside Goldar, across from them was the monster. A cross between an octopus and an ape. All of them cackled. I lay on the ground for a minute, then I struggled to get to my feet. I was knocked back onto the ground by the same attacks, only they were from close range. As I flew through the air and landed on my back, struggling to get my wind back, my first thought was _Okay, next time I wish for a monster attack, remind me not to make the monster so powerful or that Goldar and Rito are its partners!!_ The monster had a tentacle wrapped around my waist and had flung me up and slammed me into the ground, I clawed at the ground, looking for something to hold onto, but there wasn't anything! _Focus! Focus! If you don't they'll gonna kill you! Or worse take you back to the palace where god knows what Zedd will do to you!!_ When I was flung into the air once more, I happened to look up and spot my friends fighting another monster, that looked a bit like a jaguar and a lion mixed together. _Oh boy, can you say trap? _I was slammed into the ground again, when I was flung into the air once again, that's when something happened. I remained in the air, the monster tried to yank me down but I wouldn't budge. I concentrated, and yanked the monster toward me, flipped him upside down and sent him flying into Goldar and Rito. Even though both of them dodged and fired at me, I sent their attacks back at them. I flew down like an arrow and slammed them on to the ground, I flipped forward, landed on my feet and spun to face them. They both got up, so did the monster, they surrounded me on three sides. They all raced at me. I used a combination of my powers and hand to hand combat to knock them onto the ground.

"Yellow Ranger Power Blast!" I shouted, sending the blast their way, they dodged it. Goldar was in the air, having gone airborne, Rito was on my right, the monster on my left. _Got one shot at this._ I thought to myself, taking out my daggers. I concentrated as all three of them bore down on me, my daggers glowed yellow. Just barely managing to dodge Goldar and Rito, I flung my daggers at the monster. He caught one of them, the other one went straight into its chest. The monster froze then he fell to his knees. Yellow energy crackled all over its body, the monster let out a groan, then it exploded. My daggers fell to the ground then zoomed back into my hands. _Whew! That was definitely a close one, I'll have to thank Tommy and Zordon for teaching me that trick._ Goldar and Rito both charged at me, I sent another Power Blast toward them, once again they dodged it, but they couldn't dodge my daggers which came flying right after my blast, but neither of them slowed down! I began to race at them, all the while concentrating, summoning power and centering it around my hands. _I hope this works_. Flipping over them, I spun then fired.

"Yellow Ranger Spilt Attack Blast!" The blast spilt into two separate blasts that slammed into Goldar and Rito. They both let out yells.

"Had enough?" I snapped. As both of them got to their feet, Goldar glared at me.

"Never!" Roared Rito, but all three of us turned to see the lion-jaguar monster being destroyed. The other rangers were soon standing beside me, all of us were in fighting stances. Goldar and Rito looked at all of us. Then without a word they vanished. I breathed a sigh of relief. _I definitely need a breather._ But there was no time for that, lunchtime was almost over! My stomach growled angrily. All of us hightailed it back to school, ran to each of our separate lockers while wolfing down our lunches. I was busily chewing a bit of sandwich, holding my lunch bag in one hand and holding the books that I had to put away in the other and struggling to open my locker with the fingertips of the hand that was holding my books. My books fell out of my hands and onto the floor.

"Shoot." I mumbled as I swallowed the rest of my sandwich. I bent down, set my lunch bag to one side and began to pick up my books. After stuffing the books into my locker and stuffing the books that I needed into my backpack, I threw away my lunch bag and raced away to class. _No rest for the weary._ The others didn't speak to me at all about why I had been startled by Ms. Apple Bee. _Looks like Billy's forgotten about that incident, I'll have to thank Lord Zedd someday._


	12. Chapter 12

Chapter 12

"I must be crazy, I must be totally crazy for even thinking this, not to mention talking about this to you guys." I said as I paced back and forth in front of my parents grave. I stopped and looked up at the sky for a few moments then I looked at the tombstones that were in front of me.

"First off there is No WAY that I am ever telling any of the guys any of this, especially Kimberly. She'll laugh at me...or worse...actually I don't know what the worst thing she would do but if there was anything worse than that I don't want to think about. Okay, okay the worst thing she could do is tell Tommy and the others. And if that happens... no, that will not happen, just as long as I don't say anything." I grabbed my hair and yanked on it.

"Argh!!! Why oh why do I feel this way? Why am I thinking this way? And yet I am thinking and feeling this way!!! Mom, Dad! I need some advice here! How do I stop being jealous of Kimberly?" I looked imploringly at the tombstones, both of them were silent. I continued to pace back and forth.

"I can't, I can't, I can't, I can not be jealous of my sister. It's wrong, she took me in after I returned to Angel Grove, she beat up Rocky after he made fun of me when I nearly had that panic attack when I was on the balance beam, she was my first friend at Angel Grove High!!! She even told me that Rocky has a slight crush on me for Pete's sake!!!" I took a deep breath and let it out.

"Kimberly has given me so much. So why...?" I shook my head hard. Then continued.

"Its just that...whenever I'm around her I feel..like such a kid around her...like an ugly duckling. I try to not think about this but I do, I compare myself to her!! When I stand in front of a mirror and she's standing behind me I can't help but think... No, I won't admit it, I won't. But the way she holds herself and stuff she's so pretty and so sure of herself and she's a better fighter than me...okay okay, I'm jealous of my sister Kimberly. There I said it, are you happy now Mom? Are you happy now Dad? I'm totally and undeniably jealous of my friend and fellow ranger Kimberly. And she is not the only one that I feel uncomfortable around. I feel uncomfortable around Rocky, Adam, Tommy, Billy, even Zordon for god's sakes. And he's just a floating head! Now that I think about it, he's a lot like the Wizard in The Wizard Of Oz." I began to mimic Zordon.

"I am the great and powerful Zordon of the Command Center." I giggled then I turned serious again. "I tried to go shopping today and find some clothes that would make me feel and look older but I didn't like any of them. I looked like a 13 year old trying on her big sister's clothes." I let out a wail then ran my fingers through my hair, took a handful of it brought it over my shoulder so I could look at it and glared at it. My hair was wavy and long, when I was younger. My mother would style it by taking a pencil and wrap a piece of my hair onto the pencil. She would do that until my entire head of hair was curly. There was even a picture of me as a 10 year old smiling into the camera, I still had that photo in my room. Kimberly had seen it and had gushed about how cute I looked. I now looked at myself in the mirror and I didn't like that my hair was wavy, to me it made me look younger than 16. I was tired of being viewed as younger, as weak, as cute. I wanted to be strong, beautiful, I wanted to be viewed as a woman. I was tired of seeing the 16 year old, who looked like a 13 year old in the mirror. But most of all,. I was tired of complaining to myself about the way I looked and felt about myself. _Time for action!!_

"That's it! I've had enough of my own complaining, it time to do something. Thanks for listening you guys, I gotta get going now before I lose my nerve." Giving my parents a wave a ran out of the cemetery, hopped onto my bike and rode for home excitement bubbling inside of me. Luckily Kim was at home and I asked her(rather shyly) if she could take me shopping, and give she could make an appointment for me to get a new hair do. She happily agreed and I got the feeling that she has been wanting to give me a make over for a long time. So that weekend with a little help from Kimberly I found the right clothes and shoes, and jewelry. We had a brief disagreement about makeup, frankly I didn't see the need for the blusher, eyeliner and other stuff. Kimberly finally sighed and handed me the only piece of makeup that I chose: some lipstick. Then it was off to the hair dresser's. I already had an idea of what kind of hair do I wanted, and I told this to the hair dresser. An hour later, I was staring at myself in amazement. _Is that really me?_ Staring back at me was a woman, who looked sure of herself, cool and confident. I fingered my straight hair. Kimberly placed her hands on my shoulders and had a smile on her face.

"Its definitely you Ames."She said with a smile, as we walked out of the mall I felt a lot more better about myself. _I definitely needed this_. I looked into my shopping bags and smiled at the clothes, which were of different colors, I had a bit of a hard time talking Kim out of choosing the color yellow for each and every outfit. I told her that people might start making connections, if they saw 6 high school students wearing the same colors as the Power Rangers. She only said.

"Oh Amy no one will ever find out, besides a lot of people wear a certain color all the time because it happens to be their favorite. Stop worrying so much, no one can tell that we're the Power Rangers just by our choice of colors." _I don't know Kim..._


	13. Chapter 13

Chapter 13

Kimberly insisted that I model my new look for the others and that included Zordon, Ninjor and Alpha, whom I nicknamed Tentomon. I was a bit embarrassed but soon got in the spirit of things. Even going so far as to twirling and posing like a model on a run way. They all enjoyed the show and Tommy told me that I looked more grown up. I glanced at Rocky, wondering what he thought of me and my new look, he said that I looked nice. Later Kimberly told me that Rocky had kept his eyes on me for a while longer while I had continued to model the rest of my new clothes. I didn't believe her though, to me Rocky will always be a friend to me, and while I did used to have a crush on him, that feeling has been turned into anger and disappointment. Even though they didn't say anything when I showed them the new clothes that I was wearing and my new hair style, I liked to think that my mom and dad were glad that I was happy about my new look.

One day I decided to see what was outside Angel Grove, having battled several monsters on the outskirts of the city, I was curious as to finding out what lay beyond it. So packing a lunch and getting a bicycle and reassuring Kimberly about a dozen times that I will be all right and that I didn't need an escort, I took off. As I rode down the street, past the mall and the plaza my mind swarmed with memories of outings with my family. Every so often on the weekends we would drive around Angel Grove and see the sights, while my brothers would often complain that they had better things to do, I would be pretending that the places that I have been to a couple of hundreds times on my own, were new to me. My mother would call our outings "adventures", while my dad would call them "getting lost". I would always cringe whenever they said that. Now I missed those outings with my family. I sniffed as I rode past neighborhoods with the nice houses that my mother and I would exclaimed over. A lot of them were nice looking and both of us would make suggestions to each other on what the houses would need to look more prettier, like more flowers in the front yard, or lawn decorations, a little shade of color or a more darker shade or a different kind of color, but if we saw a really nice house then both of us would wish to go inside. To see if the inside of the house was like the outside. I wiped the tears from my eyes, already hearing my mother's voice in my head._ That house could use one or two more trees in its front lawn, it looks bare like that huh? And that house, why paint that house that dark brown color, if it were my house I would paint it a nice burgundy color. Yes burgundy would be the perfect color. _I let out a sigh._ Oh mom, if only I had been there..._ I continued to ride on.

Soon I came to the outskirts of Angel Grove where to my left there was nothing but trees, stopping for a bit I looked back at the city. _Hm, seems peaceful from this distance._ I was hoping that I wouldn't be called away on ranger business. Taking a breath and sitting back down on my bike I continued to ride away. Soon I came to a sign that said **Welcome To Leawood** I looked at it for a bit then continued to ride in to the city. I hummed to myself as I rode along the streets, it felt...freeing. This was a city that had probably never witnessed a monster attack or battles or knew about the power rangers or Lord Zedd and Rita Repulsa. The city looked peaceful, not knowing the horrors of everyday wheather or not its citizens might be caught in the cross fire of two armies. Wandering around on my bike I soon came to a park, deciding that this was a pretty nice spot, I parked my bike against a tree, took out my lunch from my backpack and ate. Then after resting for a bit on the grass and daydreaming about what my life would be like if I weren't a ranger I got up and after dusting off my backside, I climbed back onto my bike and continued to ride through the town. I got as far as the park's corner when my communicator beeped. _Never a dull moment when you're a power ranger. _I thought to myself as I found a hiding place for myself and my bike, answered the call and took off. When I returned, I rode further into the town and found myself in front of the library. I looked up at it for a while then decided to head inside, just to see how it differed from the library at home. Parking my bike in the bike rack I climbed the stairs, opened the door and stepped inside. The library was pretty big on the inside, the walls were coved with books, reading the directory the 2nd floor of the library had a reading room, an internet room and even a section where they had movies. After checking out the movie section and the reading section, where a group of kids were listening to a woman reading from a book, I looked over the books that were on the first floor, some of them had pretty interesting titles and I would occasionally take one down and thumb through it. Soon I had an armload of books and was heading toward the checkout desk, there were only three people in front of me. I pulled out my wallet and took out my library card and waited patiently for my turn. I did a double take at my card, it was for the Angel Grove library, not the Leawood library. I quickly slunk out of the line and began to put away the books in the places where I had gotten them. Them I walked calmly out of the building down the sitars and toward the bike rack, I breathed a sigh._ Could have happened to anybody._ I thought to myself as I climbed onto my bick and rode back to Angel Grove.


	14. Chapter 14

Chapter 14

The following weekend I returned to Leawood and continued my exploration. Having gone to various neighborhoods, the shopping mall and the bay, I was convinced that Leawood was a pretty nice city in itselfI was cycling down a street when a pair of butterflies that seemed to be playing a game of tag, caught my full attention. I was so busy watching them as they fluttered to and fro that I didn't realize where my bike was heading nor did I see the curb. The front wheel of my bike hit the curb and I went flying over the handle bars. My bike clattered to the ground, instinctively I began to concentrate, to use my powers to stop my fall when a pair of arms suddenly came out of no where and stopped my fall.

"I gotcha." said a voice as I fell against a boy, he steadied himself then brought me upright

"Thanks. That was super clumsy of me." I said as I brushed hair out of my eyes and looked up at my rescuer.

"No problem, though I have to admit that you flew rather gracefully." He said as he smiled down at me.

"I'm glad you enjoyed my flying, now I have to work on my landings." _Am I actually flirting with him?_ I turned away, walked over to my bike, picked it up and checked it for any damages. There were none. I turned back to the boy, he was maybe a foot taller than me, with black hair, black eyes and wearing a white shirt and blue pants. His eyes were lit up as he looked at me. Then filled with concern.

"You aren't hurt, are you?

"No, I'm okay." I began to walk my bike, suddenly wishing that I lived in Leawood. The boy fell into step beside me.

"So are you new in Leawood?" he asked. Before I could even think my mouth took over and I said.

"Yeah, I just came here a few days ago."

"How do you like it so far?"

"I like it very much." _Stop staring at him_. I turned my gaze to the sidewalk in front of me.

"So are you going to Leawood High?" Before I could stop myself I gave him the truth.

"No, I'm going to Angel Grove High." _Ah, why did I say that? _He looked at me confused.

"Angel Grove High?"

"Oops." I said looking down and blushing. "Sorry about that, I–I live in Angel Grove, I go to the high school there. I came to Leawood because I was curious as to find out what was on the outside. Getting out of my comfort zone."

"And?"

"And so far I like what I found." _Oh my god! Did I actually say that? _The boy nodded in understanding.

"Oh my gosh, I totally forgot my manners." I stuck out my hand. "My name's Amy Karmer."

The boy took my hand in his and shook it. "Dex Stewart." A thrill went through me at his warm touch. I smiled at him. Dex noticed that I was walking funny.

"Are you sure that you aren't hurt? You're limping." I looked down at my ankle.

"Oh, that. No, no I've had that limp for a while now. My sister was trying to teach me how to roller blade but I couldn't stay on my feet. The next thing I knew my left foot was going in front of me and my right foot was going behind me. I was turning myself so as to regain my balance and I twisted my ankle."

"Oh." Dex said, he looked down at me. "Did you ever try to roller blade again?"

I shook my head.

"No, ice skating is more my thing." Kim had recently taken me to an ice rink and I had mastered skating on the ice pretty quickly.

"How long have you been ice skating?"

"For two months now. I really enjoy it, I try to get out onto the ice whenever I'm not too busy." _I wonder if I'm talking too much, well he did ask. And I'm just giving him a straight answer._

"What about you? What do you like to do in your free time?" I asked.

"Well, I like to dance and ride my motorcycle."

"Are you a good dancer?"

"Pretty good." We were just passing a house and Dex was about to ask me something when the front door to the house opened and a woman poked her head out and called to Dex.

"Dex, supper time." Dex and I both jumped, then laughing both of us turned toward the woman._ This must be where he lives. _

"Okay mom." Dex called. Mrs. Stewart caught sight of me.

"Oh, hello. I see Dex has brought some company, would you like to have supper with us?" Her eyes lit up as she took in the scene before her.

"No thank you ma'am. I've got to get home myself." I turned to Dex. "Well, nice meeting you."

"Same here, mind if I call you later?" I had to bite my lower lip to keep from yelling from excitement. I nodded. Dex turned from me to his mom.

"Mom, Could you—?" But he saw that Mrs. Stewart already had a pencil and paper in her hands and was beside her son.

"I'm way ahead of you dear." She said. I smiled as Dex tore the paper in two, handed me a piece and waited for me to finish writing my number, then handing the pencil back to him, he wrote his number on his paper and I handed him mine and he handed me his. After putting the paper in my back pocket, I climbed on my bike and after giving Dex and his mom a wave, I pedaled toward Angel Grove. I had a happy smile on my face._ I can't believe it! Not only do I explore a new city but I meet and actually flirt with a boy and I got his phone number!!!_ Excitement bubbled inside of me, I couldn't wait to tell Kimberly!


	15. Chapter 15

Chapter 15

"So what's he like?" asked Kimberly, she had excited look on her face. I smiled, glad that I could share an experience like this to someone.

Well, he's a foot taller than me, really cute and he has black eyes and dark hair." Kimberly sighed

"Ah, talldark and handsome. A perfect combination for a girl." I continued.

"And he told me that he's a gooddancer and that he has a motorcycle."

"Tell me againhow the two of you met." I told her again.

"And you actually flirted with him?"

"Yeah, I did. And I didn't even realize it for a second. And he flirted back." I had a big smile on my face, Kimberly'sexcitment was contagious. Then I told her how Dex and I exchanged phone numbers and he said that he was going to call me later. Both of us were in the kitchen, sitting at the table. As soon as I had returned home I had told Kim about meeting Dex.

"So you think that he might ask you out?" I thought for a few moments, to tell the truth I was excited to meet a boy who showed an interest in me but the concept of me going out on a date with that boy...it had never crossed my mind...in fact that thought almost seemed alien to me. I decided to not tell my sister this or she might freak out. Instead I nodded and said that I hoped so.

"Well, when he does I want you to let me know, okay?"

"That way I can give you advice on the rules of dating." I stared at her. _There are rules?_ My sisters had never mentioned anything about rules when it came to dating, but that was because I had never asked. _My sisters._ It had been some time and I had never even thought of them,_ I think I'll give them a call later._ Just then the phone rang, both of us let out screams and we fell out of our chairs.

"It's him!! Answer it Amy Answer it answer it!" squeled Kimberly. The phone rang again and in my haste to get to it, I tripped and fell.

"Hurry up and answer it before he hangs up!"

"Kim! Stop it! You're making me nervous." I shouted at her as I scrambled to my feet and reached the phone. Taking a deep breath so as to calm myself down, I took the phone off its hook and answered it. Kimberly, on the other hand, was dancing around the kitchen wanting to know if it was Dex. Holding the phone to my ear with my right hand, I used my left hand to try to wave her away.

"Hello?"

"Hi Amy, its Dex." Kimberly, who was pressing her face to my cheek and _listening_ into my conversation, gave a little hop of excitement.

"Hey, what's up?" Kimberly was busy scowling at me and shaking her head and whispered "You're not supposed to start a telephone conversation that way." Ignoring her I turned my attention back to Dex. Kim stood near the phone and was trying to listen in on my conversation.

"Nothing much, I just called to see if you were still practicing your landings. Weather or not you've got the hang of it yet." I could hear the smile in his voice and my heart began to pound double time. I let out a little squeak of nervousness then cleared my throat and said.

"No no, I stopped practicing my landings. I'm begining to get afraid that I'll hurt someone."

"Oh, well that's too bad. Because I was hoping that maybe one of these days we could both go flying." I giggled.

"Well, if we do go flying then we had better go in an airplane, that way we would be less liable to crash into something if we miss our stop."

"That's true An airplane it is. So you did a lot of sightseeing while you were in Leawoodright? You got any favorite spots?"

"Well, the library was pretty nice looking, and so was the park and the bay too. The water over at the bay was really nice looking all sparkly because the sun was shinging onto the surface."

"Yeah, the bay does look nice on certain days."

"Oh. You go there often?"

"Its one of the places that I go to when I've got a lot on my mind." Kimberly had a grin on her face.

"Ah the thoughtful type, that's good. Their great conversationalists." She said. _She certainly does play the part of the nosy big sister. _I thought to myself as Dex and I continued to talk, but the more we talked the more impatient Kimberly got and she kept asking me over and over again.

"Did he ask you out yet?" I put one hand on the mouthpiece of the phone and hissed at her.

"No." I put the phone back to my ear.

"I'm sorry Dex,what was that?"

"I was just asking if you would like to go dancing with me." I stared at Kim who stared back. I quickly repeated what Dex asked me and she clapped her hands with glee and began to jump up and down. I was speechless for a few moments.

"Amy, say yes." hissed Kim, taking up her position again.

"Yeah sure, I'd love to go dancing with you."

"Great. Is this weekend okay?" Dex asked, there was pleasure in his voice.

"Yeah, this weekend is cool."

"Cool, there's this great club in Leawood that plays all kinds of music."

"I can't wait."

"See ya Amy."

"Bye Dex." And we both hung up. Kim let out a yip then grabbed me and swung me around.

"Oh my gosh! You have a date Amy, you have a date."

"I have a date!" I squealed jumping up and down with excitement. Then it turned into an Oh my god moment.

"Oh my god I have a date!"


	16. Chapter 16

Chapter 16

After I had realized that I had just made a date with a boy, I began to panic. Kimberly said that she would help me out in getting me prepared, for which I was grateful. Grabbing me by the hand, she pulled me up the stairs and into my room. I sat down on the bed and watched her as she began to raid my closet. _Glad I got some new clothes._ I thought to myself as Kim pulled out outfit after outfit and threw them on the bed. Before I had felt inferior to Kimberly and her taste in clothes but now I felt alright.

"Uh Kim? What are you doing?" She turned to me.

"I'm helping you get ready for your date." I stared at her.

"But my date's not until this weekend and that's five days from now." Kim had turned back to my closet and was rummaging around.

"Yes, I know that. That's rule number one: Always know what you are going to wear well before the day of the date, that way you won't become all panicky and rush through all your clothes and find out that you have nothing to wear." She pulled out a creme colored shirt with ruffles on the color, it had a semi-low neckline. She nodded to herself, then she handed me the shirt than began to rummage through my closet again, muttering under her breath. She was making me nervous, I kept thinking that the doorbell was going to ring any moment and Dex was going to be outside waiting for me. So I got up and walked over to my dresser. Opening up my jewelry box I began to take out all the jewelry and look it over. After a few months of practicing I had found out that I could transfer a small amount of my power into another piece of jewelry, I fingered the small butterfly necklace that I had received on my 12th birthday. Getting the shirt from off of the bed and holding it up against me, I held the butterfly necklace to my throat and looked at myself. _Hmm pretty_. Kimberly had pulled out a mini skirt, she held it up and eyed it for a few moments then she nodded, placed it on the bed then she looked down at my shoes.

"You can't walk in high heels can you?" she asked me. She looked over at my choice of jewelry and examined it for a moment, then she nodded, she helped me chose the right earrings.

"No. I can't, when I was little I would try on my mom's high heels or my sisters. But I could never keep my balance." Kimberly smiled at me.

"You just need a bit of practice. And that's rule number two: Always chose the right footwear, so you don't go all uncomfortable. I think I have some low heels for you." Then she dashed off for her room. I decided to put on the outfit, just to see how it looked. Kimberly came back just as I was slipping into the shirt. She smiled at me as I examined myself in the mirror. I was about to take off my locket and replace it with the butterfly necklace when my communicator beeped. _Oh, boy. _Both of us dropped what we were doing and answered the call of duty. After we kicked Goldar and the monsters butt, we returned to my room and Kim gave me her low heels. I considered myself lucky that my friends didn't say anything about the outfit that I was wearing. _Either they know or they didn't notice._ I thought to myself as Kimberly watched me walk back and forth across the room to see how I fared in low heels. I liked them better than the high heels that my mom had.

"Okay time for rule number three: And that is make up. Now I know that you don't like to put too much so we'll just work on that." She had brought along her makeup bag and began to apply eye shadow, lipstick and blush to my face. She wiped off the eye show stating that I didn't need it. Then she saw me blink rapidly.

"What's wrong?"

"I'm sorry, its just that the last time someone that I cared about applied makeup to my face, was my mom."

"Amy, I know that you still miss her. Believe me if the guys and I could have changed the outcome of the battle of that day then we would. Its not fair that after all the stuff that Lord Zedd put you through he lays some more on you. We are here to support you Amy and we will always be here for you okay?" I nodded and smiled up at her, wiping the tears from my eyes. Kimberly wiped off some of the eyeshadow off of me since, in her opinion they brought out a darkness in my eyes that looked scary.

"Sorry about that." She said quickly.

"Its alright." She continued to apply make up to my face, wiping my face clean, applying some shades that matched my skin tone but then would wipe them off. _I've forgotten that applying makeup to one's face took a lot of work._ I thought to myself as I remembered my dad yelling at my mom to hurry it up, they were going to be late. Finally Kimberly thought that my face looked pretty enough and that all I needed was a bit of blush and some lipstick. I looked at myself in the mirror, I looked, well, really pretty.

"Okay, the last and final rule, the hair." She studied my hair a bit.

"I don't think we're gonna have to do too much, just a little bit of hair spray and that's it. It looks really nice all straight." She saw me smile and she smiled back at my reflection, then she took a step back, while I spun slowly around. She nodded her approval.

"Looking good girl. Okay so now you are all prepared for your date."

"Thanks Kimberly, for everything."

"Hey, what are sisters for?" she said with a smile. Then she took off the makeup on my face and exited out of room so that I could switch back into my street clothes, then after folding up the outfit and stepping out into the hall, I suggested to Kim that we celebrate my first date by going out for ice cream, she agreed and away we went. As we rode our bikes I suddenly thought of what Kimberly had said

"What are sisters for?" _She is certainly like a sister to me._ I was glad that she had accepted me as a true teammate and friend and no longer just a replacement ranger. More so that she considered me a sister. _I wonder if the other rangers have accepted me like Kimberly has?_ I knew that even when all of them have accepted me there was still that large hole that I could never fill where Aishia had been. _The pain will never go away._ I still kept thinking that my mother will walk in through the door with her arms full of groceries, my dad would be coming home hungry and irritable and I would help my mom with putting away the groceries and feeding my dad. And I would catch myself looking out the window searching and waiting. _I wonder if Kimberly and the others are searching and waiting._.

The next day Dex called and we both began to chat about what we liked to do in our free time our hobbies and our dreams for the future. _Huh. And all this time I was worried that I would have trouble finding something to talk about, but it turns out that I didn't have anything to worry about at all._ Before I knew it, I had made the confession to Dex that this would be my first date.

"Really?" he said. "Wow, this is my first date too. When my sister and my mom found out that I had asked you out, they jumped up and down and began to dance."

I laughed. "Yeah, my sister did the same thing, then she began to talk about these rules." _What am I saying?_

"Rules?" laughed Dex. "Oh great as if meeting a girl and talking to her weren't hard enough now there are rules on the right way to date?"

"Yeah, weird huh?"

"Who makes up this stuff?"

"I'm pretty sure the people who write _Vogue _and _Sixteen _magazines. But it does prepare people on what to expect when they go on a date."

"Yeah, but a lot of things can happen that the writers or the people didn't know about."

"Yeah." We were silent for a moment, I was up in my bedroom with the door closed, I was sure that Kimberly had her ear pressed to the door. _Good thing she has a cordless._

"So what about your mom? Was she excited that you had met a handsome boy while you were off exploring the great unknown?" I smiled into the phone.

"As a matter of fact, I did. And I like to think that she was just as excited as Kimberly."

"She wasn't?"_Uh-oh now I've done _it. I shifted my position on the bed. I took a deep breath then began to mentally yell at myself, for being careless.

"Yeah, uh m-my mom's dead. She died a few months ago."

"Oh, I'm sorry. Are you and you dad okay?" _Stupidstupidstupid._

"Actually I'm an orphan."I surprised myself by saying that I had never really thought of myself as an orphan...just a kid who lost her parents.

"Oh, wow." Dex said then he was silent. "Do you miss them?"

"Yeah, I do." More silence.

"Do you want to talk about something else?" I breathed a sigh of relief then an idea came into my head.

"Sure."

"Okay."

"Can I ask you something? How is it possible that your mom knew that you were going to ask for my phone number?"

"Oh that. Well...it seems that my mom, when she saw the two of us together, she saw something there. I'm not sure how, I think maybe she's psychic or something but when I was thinking of getting your number Boom! There she was right beside me."

"With paper and pencil in hand." I said with a smile on my face.

"Right with paper and pencil in hand, and she said that "A mother knows when her son sees a person that he likes and wants to get to know her better.""

"Hmm, if you had come to Angel Grove and if Kimberly had seen the two of us together she would have probably done the same thing."

"Probably." Dex said. My communicator beeped.

"Oh Dex, I'm sorry I've got to go, I've got a bit of leftover homework to do."

"Oh, okay talk to you later Amy."

"Later."


	17. Chapter 17

Chapter 17

In my opinion when my friends found out that I had an upcoming date, their reaction wasn't too bad. Just embarrassing.

"You've got a date! Oh my gosh Amy that's so great!" said Tommy.

"Tommy, its not great. It's cute!" Rocky said gleefully. He began to prance around the table, it was lunch time at Angel Grove High, we were all sitting together(though there wasn't much elbow room)but Kimberly_ insisted_.

"So," said Billy with a smile on his face. "Who's the lucky guy?" I sighed. I was hoping to keep this quiet, a part of me saw the date as no big thing but another part of me was yelling and shouting and jumping up and down. I glared at Kimberly who looked back at me with an innocent expression on her face. Then a grin broke out on her face.

"How could I resist?" she said with a nod toward the other rangers. The only people who knew about my upcoming date were my parents. I had called my brothers and sisters to share in the news but hadn't gotten an answer yet. I think that they were giving me the cold shoulder or something.

"Well, his name is Dex Stewart and I met him in Leawood. It's a city not far from here." I told them what we had both planned. Adam with a grin on his face, threw his arm around Tommy and said.

"Its official, our little Amy is growing up." Tommy frowned slightly.

"Leawood is pretty far away Ames, are you sure that you could handle yourself?" I stared at him._ I must have wax in my ears, Tommy is worried that a boy will give me trouble. _

"Yeah, Tommy I'll be fine, if he tries anything I'll give him the old round house kick." I grinned at him, he only said.

"Maybe you should change your plans with him, tell him that you're not at all comfortable going over to Leawood, that way he'll come to Angel Grove."

"Oh Tommy, lay off will you? This is Amy we're talking about, if she can scare the bejezzes out of Lord Zedd than she could definitely handle a boy even if he tries to put some moves on her." said Rocky.

"I know that she'll be able to handle herself you don't have to tell me. Its Zordon that's worried about her." I blinked.

"Zordon?" Tommy nodded.

"Yeah, he got worried when Kim told us about your date. And he told me to tell you that if Dex tries anything to call us." I looked at him for a few moments. Then I turned toward Kim.

"You told them about my date while you guys were in the Command Center didn't you?"

"Zordon says that if Dex so much as tries to touch you in anyway then he has Alpha ready and waiting to teleport this Dex character to an faraway planet." said Rocky with a grin on his face. I let out a sigh and buried my face in my hands. _Mental note: Have a serious talk with Zordon and Tentomon._

"Why is he so worried? He knows that I can take care of myself."

"Zordon is like that, other than being our mentor and friend, he's also like a father figure to us." said Kimberly. Adam nodded.

"Yeah and besides can you blame him for being worried?" _I guess not, if mom and dad were still alive, they would probably be the same way._

A day later I was attacked by a dude or alien(I think it was an alien) that had two faces that seemed to be sitting on top of each other, but the bad part was that this guy's power was... throwing sharp things, luckily I was able to dodge most of them, a couple of them missed me by inches, he did manage to cut off a couple of pieces of my hair, but as soon as my friends came he took off.

"Okay, what the heck is going on? Who was that guy that just attacked me?" Zordon looked down at me, and told me that the origin of the attacker appeared to be Leawood. But the computer really didn't have any data on him. I didn't hear the last part. _Leawood? Leawood? That's where Dex is_.When I got home I was about to call Dex and ask him if he knew the aliens that attacked me. _He must know, how could he not. Everyone here in Angel Grove knows about Goldar, Lord Zedd and company. So everyone in Leawood must know about those aliens. I wonder how many there are?_ I stopped as my hand rested on the phone, I shook my head. _Don't think about numbers! You're already worried about that the tables could turn on you and your friends in _this _fight, don't start thinking about another fight that could have nothing to do with you! _I picked up the phone and began to dial Dex's number, as I listened to it ring, finally after a moment I thought_ What did that alien want with me anyway? Why did he suddenly attack me?_ _Stop thinking about it_._ You don't know anything really, so why worry about it? _I set the phone back down on its hook. _I'll try again later. _


	18. Chapter 18

Chapter 18

Serval days had passed since that weird alien dude showed up and I still had some questions, I was a bit unnerved that whoever this guy was he originated from Leawood. The place where the guy that I liked lived. It was Thursday and despite my worries about the alien and whether Zordon and the rest of us would ever find out what his deal was and whether or not he would be joining up with Lord Zedd or something, was pushed to the back of my mind when I thought of my upcoming date. Rocky pulled me aside for some advice, stating that if Dex even so much as tried to kiss me at the end of the date tomorrow, to call on Zordon and Alpha will send him to Peru.

"Or the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean."

"Rocky! Will you stop that already? You're making me nervous and I'm already nervous already!" _Besides I'm pretty sure that Dex wouldn't try to kiss me on the first date...although that would be pretty cool_. I giggled to myself as I walked down the hall to my next class I began to blush as I thought of something. _I wonder if I should practice kissing? _I giggled some more while I slid into my seat in math class.

While I was walking home I thought about the promise that I made. _I kept my promise to my friends, I'm only visiting my parents once a week. Its good I guess, at least the others aren't nagging at me, especially Zordon. Who does the guy think he is? My father? I'm only doing this so my friends will shut up. _A flame of anger went through me. _Its not fair that I only have to visit them just once a week, I'm not getting depressed or anything because of this, I'm not thinking of trying to join them by committing suicide or anything. I just want to be there for my parents everyday, not once a week. If their parents were dead, they would want to visit them everyday_, _and not even Zordon would stop them so why are they doing this to me? _I mulled it over, but couldn't think of an answer. I shook my head, briefly wondering if I'll ever find the answer. Another thing that is been troubling me is the thought that my mom some how knew that she was going to die that day. _She was pretty insistent on that day...she practically shoved me out the door and told me to hurry up. Was she trying to get me out of harms way or was she really telling me to get a move on to get to school on time? If she knew that she was going to die then why didn't she try to make a run for it, try to get out of the house and try to save herself? Why did she stay in there and wait for Lord Zedd? _I stopped and closed my eyes, struggling to push away the questions that had no answers. I sighed, then I gave myself a shake._ I shouldn't be thinking about this, I should be concentrating on my date tomorrow. _Focusing my thoughts on Dex and weather or not he really was a good dancer, I continued to walk home.

On Friday morning, I woke up, then flopped back into bed. I hugged my pillow. My mind blank for a few moments. Then I began to think of my old life. _If mom were still alive and I weren't a ranger, mom would be shouting at me from downstairs to get up and go to school, dad would have already gone to work and my brothers would still be asleep, snoring away._ I blinked back tears. _I was happy back then but now..._ I withdrew my covers and sat up, sighing I let my gaze roam around the room. Slipping out of bed I raised my arms above my head and stretched then I ran my fingers through my hair and began to rummage around my closet. Soon I was limping down the hall, fully dressed, down the stairs and into the kitchen. Kim was already there, she was at the stove stirring eggs in a pan. She turned when I opened up the fridge to pull out the orange juice.

"Tonight's the big night." she sang with a grin on her face. I struggled not to roll my eyes. _Does she have to remind me everyday?_ Instead as I straighten up, I fixed a small smile on my face.

"Uh-huh."

"Aren't you excited?" I got a cup from the cupboard and filled it with juice, then I sat down at the table, taking a few sips before I answered.

"Yeah, I'm excited. Its just that...well, it doesn't come as a big shock to me anymore. I'm used to it now I guess."

"Oh." she said, I glanced at her she had a bit of a disappointed look on her face. A few moments passed, then she said.

"So, you're going to visit your parents today?"

"Yeah after school. You guys aren't still worried about me are you?"

"No no we aren't. In fact all of us are glad that you are at least talking to someone about the stuff that's been going on in your life...but your parents.?" I sighed and kept my temper in check.

"Kimberly, I've already explained this to Zordon to you and the others. Now for the last time I talk to them because I want them to know what has been going on in my life ever since I left my sister's to come live with you. It helps me sort out stuff, plus if I don't visit them I'll feel like I'm offending them or something." Kimberly was silent for a moment, then she said.

"Amy, they're dead." I bit my tongue to keep from yelling at her, anger rising within me, I shoved it down.

"Kim, I know that they're dead. And I know to a rational person that the dead don't listen to you or give you comfort or don't have any feelings except for being dead. But I don't think that. To me they are alive whenever I go to the cemetery and they listen to me, in fact it works both ways I comfort them with the fact that their dead and no longer in my life, they comfort me when my life has turned upside down." Kimberly turned to me, her eyes flashed.

"You have friends you know, we talk everyday, you could tell us anything you know that." I stood up and looked at her.

"Sometimes it helps not to talk, just listen." I began to limp toward the door while Kimberly stared after me.

Later that day I was walking home from the cemetery, at school Kim had apologized to me about saying that mean thing to me and I had accepted. _She's just hurt that's all, she knows that there are some things that I don't tell my friends and yet I'm able to share with my parents. Maybe I should tell them what I tell mom and dad._

Two laser blasts suddenly came out of no where, I let out a scream as both of them hit me, thanks to split second thinking, I managed to barley dodge them, through my arm did get burned. But I quickly healed it and at the same time more blasts came flying my way! Throwing up a force shield without even thinking the blasts bounced off the shield. I stood up and looked around, but I couldn't see anybody. _Keep your guard up girl_. I was ready for anything suddenly two aliens appeared a few feet away from me. One was the two faced alien that I had encountered before, on the right of him...er...them was another alien but this one wore a leather jacket and had one eye in the middle of his face.

"It is her! Grab her!" shouted one of them. In a split second both of them were in front of me and had blasted me a few feet and I had fallen to the ground, I was writhing in pain holding onto my stomach. _Okay, I wasn't ready for that!_ I struggled to my feet, both of the aliens were approaching me ready to do or take me to who knows where! _I need to heal myself. _I thought to myself as I turned and twisted and dodged the aliens attacks, luckily it was hand to hand combat, but that all soon changed quickly. Soon I was on the ground, my newly healed body burning in pain! _I have to morph! _I struggled to get to my feet but before I could gain my footing, I was grabbed and flung back,

"Are you sure this is her Double Face The last time we faced her she was more powerful."

"I am quite sure Cyclopter, she seems weak now but that was because we surprised her. I would have thought she would have been better prepared for a surprise attack, it seems I have been mistaken." said the alien with the 2 faces. _Double-Face? Cyclopter? I do not think that these two are from Lord Zedd's army._ I got to my feet only to be punched to the ground. _Get up! _My mind screamed.

"Well, even if she seems weak right now that power of hers is strong, Count Dregon just wants her power. We can kill her after he is through with her." Both of them began to approach me. Suddenly a pair of feet appeared in front of me and I saw both aliens freeze.

"You!"

"Nice to see you again Cyclopter. Double-Face how is that burn mark that I gave you?"

"This does not concern you Masked Rider."

"You're wrong, it becomes my concern when Dregon attacks innocent people." By this time all three of them were circling each other then as if on a signal, they began to race at each other. I stared in astonishment, the fighting was fast and furious. The Masked Rider looked like a black bug with red eyes and antenna sticking out of his head. I watched as Masked Rider fought like there were two of him instead of just one. He kicked and punched and sent them flying before they could even begin to recover. Both of them seemed badly hurt and looked as if they weren't going to take anymore but their bodies wouldn't allow them to go any farther. They gave each other an uneasy glance as Masked Rider pulled out a sword and yield it.

"Until we meet again." snapped Cyclopter. I wasn't sure which one of he was talking to and I didn't care, it was a blessed relief when the both of them vanished. The Masked Rider stood there for a few moments then he turned back to me and jogged over and picked me up.

"Are you alright?" he asked. I let out a grunt as I leaned against him.

"I think so."

"Looks like you're in pretty bad shape."

"Hah, I've been in worse." I looked at him as I straighten up and began to heal my body, the Masked Rider didn't seem surprised. For he only nodded. When I had finished, I looked at him.

"Thank you for coming to my rescue." he didn't say anything.

"Can you tell me who those two were? And why were they after me?" the Masked Rider looked at me for a few moments then said.

"I don't know, if you want to know the truth but I'll find out. Don't concern yourself about them."

"Yes but..." I started, but before I could even blink he was gone. _What the? Okay! I am seriously getting tired of not getting any answers!_ And I continued to stomp home.


	19. Chapter 19

Chapter 19

After I had told Zordon of the attack and the names of those two aliens and the Masked Rider and how he saved me, Zordon still didn't have any new data on those two aliens. _That's not a big surprise_. I thought to myself as I looked up a him. My friends were around me, having just come back from a battle with one of Lord Zedd's and Rita's monsters. It struck me as a little strange that Lord Zedd should attack my friends while at the same time I'm attacked by a possibly new enemy. I didn't tell my friends this, knowing that they had enough on their plates as it was. Zordon acted a little weirdly when I mentioned the name Count Dregon, he got this freaked out look on his face.

"Zordon? Are you okay?" asked Kim. He quickly snapped out of it and reassured her that he was fine, while all of this was going on, I was explaining to the others about the Masked Rider and I was surprised that they had met him.

"Really? You did? Where?" Tommy explained.

"It was a long time ago, Alpha received a distress signal from his home planet and Zordon sent us there to investigate. Once there we were confronted by a group of warriors who thought that the we were the enemy and we battled. It wasn't until we mentioned Alpha that they were convinced that we meant them no harm and they believed us. During the battle one of the warriors transformed into a gigantic bug on two legs and called himself the Masked Rider. He was really cool and explained to us a bit about what was happening to his planet and we offered to fight beside him."

"Which we did." piped up Rocky.

"Anyway after helping him fight off his enemies monsters we had to take off again because Lord Zedd found out that we weren't on Earth and had taken advantage." I was amazed. _This must have happened when Aishia was still alive._

"Have you heard from him?" Tommy shook his head.

"No, this is the first time that we've gotten word of him. In a way, I'm glad you met him Amy, I just wish it was under better circumstances." Billy had a thoughtful look on his face and turned to ask Alpha several questions about the Masked Rider. Alpha knew very little since he had been built by his creator, King Lexion, before the war on Edenio broke out.

"The Masked Rider powers are passed down from generation to generation in the royal family for thousands of years, being there just in case there was any trouble, it has several upgrades but...that's all that I have in my data banks...I'm sorry that I can't be of more help to you rangers."

"What about the names Count Dregon, Cyclopter and Double-Face? Do those ring any bells Tento?" Alpha shook his head.

"No, I'm sorry Amy." I thought for a minute.

"Well, what if we try to contact King Lexion, maybe he knows." Alpha shook his head sadly.

"I've tried contacting him several times to see how he is doing but so far no luck." I placed my hand on Alpha's shoulder and patted it. He looked up at me and I smiled at him. _Great. Another psycho maniac that wants to kill me and take my powers. Yep, life as a ranger, definitely the life for me._ I thought to myself, I heaved a silent sigh.

"I wonder why Count Dregon attacked you Amy?" I sent Billy an annoyed look. He looked sheepish.

"Oh, right sorry. Well, if both Masked Rider and Count Dregon are here on Earth then it must mean that the war that was fought on Edenio has moved."

"Yes, but for what purpose? If Dregon wants to take over the world he's going to have to fight Lord Zedd for it. And that could mean big trouble for Earth not to mention us." Rocky said. Tommy closed his eyes and ran his fingers through his hair a tired look on his face. I gave him a sympathetic look. _Must be hard being the leader. _I felt angry. _Tommy doesn't need this, he's a good guy he should be given some slack. In fact all off them should be given some slack_. I decided to take their minds off of Count Dregon and those two weirdos by waving my hand in the air and saying

"Guys, we shouldn't be worrying about this stuff, we hardly have information on those freaks that attacked me. And who knows if they are going to be making another appearance. I find that very doubtful, I mean Double-Face saw that when you guys had come to my rescue the first time he totally freaked. He only attacked me because I was alone. I highly doubt he'll come again. And if he does we'll just give him a taste of what Zedd is going through." The others were thinking it over and they highly agreed that it was possible, I breathed a silent sigh then nearly jumped out of my skin when Kimberly exclaimed and reminded me about my date tonight.

"Oh my god! I totally forgot!" I cried out. Kimberly began to yell at me that a girl never ever forgets that she has a date with a cute boy.

"Kimberly! Will you be quiet and help me get ready for god's sake!" I yelled at her as both of us teleported to my room. Thanks to Kimberly's thinking ahead, I was all dressed in 6 minutes. The hair and makeup part, that took longer. Kim and I got into an argument about weather or not my hair should be kept down or be put up, then we had another argument about the amount of hair spray that she was putting in my hair.

"Kim stop it, that's too much."

"It is not, I've just begun spraying."

"Kim! You've been spraying for 2 whole minutes, anymore hair spray and my head is going to resemble a helmet."

"It will not, quite moving." Then we got into another argument about the amount of perfume I should put on. Kim wanted me to put on a lot, I only wanted to put on a little, I didn't want to make the guy sick or anything. _I guess both of us are just nervous and we're super heroes._ Just as I was holding the perfume bottle out of her reach, the doorbell rang. _It must be Dex! _Abandoning her efforts to grab the bottle from above her head, Kimberly told me to finish getting ready while she dashed out of my room and down the stairs. I breathed a sigh, glad to be given a few moments of peace. Putting on my low heels, getting my wallet and putting it in my purse and removing some makeup that Kim had put on me(_just a little bit, there we go)_I limped out of my room and down the stairs. I could hear Kim talking to Dex in the living room, walking in there I saw him. He grinned at me and my heart thumped faster. In the light of the lamp that was on the coffee table, it gave off a glow that seemed to come from within him. Kim had an excited look on her face and I knew that if she could, she would have given me the thumbs-up sign. I smiled at the both of them.

"Ready?" Dex asked. I nodded and after giving Kim a hug and wishing us both to have a good time, Dex and I walked out the door, and down the steps to his car. It was a red sports car. _Nice_ I thought to myself as Dex held the passenger door open for me and I slid in the car seat. After he closed the door he walked to the other side of the car, opened the door, slid into his seat, closed the door, started the engine, and we were off.

"So what's this club like?" I asked feeling a tad nervous to be going out to a town that I hardly knew._ But with a guy that I like!_ Dex had a small smile on his face.

"It's a really cool club, with a really big floor where people can dance and a deejay that comes every couple of times a week to take requests. It even has a bar where you can order drinks." _Non-alcoholic I hope._ As if reading my thoughts, Dex told me that they served fruit juice, water or soda.

"Every now and then some one orders a fruit smoothie, I've tried one myself and their really good."

"It sounds like you've been to this place a lot." _Probably with another girl._ I couldn't help thinking.

"Yeah I have, my sister, Molly, said that I needed to get out more so she dra—uh showed me the club and I liked it so much that I would go once every Friday to burn off steam." I looked at him.

"You have a job?" Dex closed his eyes briefly then opened them again and nodded.

"Yeah I do." Before I could ask anymore questions he added.

"The job is hard and it's a bit tiresome, plus I get a lot of stress because of the stuff that I have to deal with. But after a long hard day, it feels nice to just relax ya know?" I nodded, understanding all too well. _Its nice to do something normal after dealing with all the weirdness of being a power ranger. _I thought to myself as I leaned back against the seat and watched as the sky outside grew dark, after passing through the next town we came to Leawood. I sat up and looked at the buildings that we passed, we were well into the city. Soon we came the club. Dex found parking in the full parking lot, parked, turned off the engine and got out, then he walked over to my side and opened my door and I got out. He led me into the building, inside the flashing lights and the music distorted me for a few moments but soon my eyes got used to the lights. Dex had to lean down and shout into my ear so that I could hear him.

"Come on. Oh, can you dance with your ankle?" I looked into his black eyes and nodded. He grinned at me then he grabbed me by the hand and led me onto the dance floor. The songs that played reminded me of several songs from the video game Dance Dance Revolution and I felt the songs going through me. I raised my arms and moved my body. True to his word, Dex was a pretty good dancer, both of us had a good time. In the back of my mind I knew that my communicator would hardly be heard over the noise, my next thought was,_ Good, I would like to act like a normal girl for once. _Listening to the songs, I danced to them with my eyes closed letting my mind wander freely and become blank. I opened my eyes and spun and continued to dance. I'm not sure how long we danced but Dex and I were having a good time, laughing and shouting at each other to be heard over the music. Finally, making a sign with my hands and pointing to my stomach to show Dex that I was hungry, a look of relief came on his face and I laughed.

"Okay, I'm getting hungry too." he shouted into my ear. Grabbing my hand again he led me off the dance floor until we were both standing in front of the bar.

"There's a restaurant not far from here, do you want to go there?" When I nodded, I followed him as we both stepped outside, my face was hit with cool air and I was glad for the silence, the sounds of the music were muffled by the door. Both of us were laughing and panting. Making our way back to his car, both us talked about the kinds of music that was played in the club. And I told him that I liked it and wished that the clubs over in Angel Grove would play that kind of music.

"Its really energetic and it makes you want to dance forever."

"Oh, please. I don't think my feet could take anymore." groaned Dex. We both laughed as we arrived at the restaurant. To my relief the place wasn't too full and we found a seat. Dex slid into his seat with a grateful sigh.

"Tired you out huh?" I smiled at him as I sat across from him. He nodded.

"Yeah, I've never met someone who loved to dance."

"It was the music, I love techno, I'm thinking of getting a few CDS of Jenny Rom, she's pretty cool."

"Who taught you how to dance? You were amazing." I blushed then I thought excitedly. _He likes my dancing!_. Before I could answer, a waitress came, Dex and I had only a few seconds to glance at the menus that were front of us and quickly ordered our food. Dex ordered a steak burger with fries and a coke, I ordered a hamburger with curly fries and a coke. The waitress nodded, wrote down our orders then walked away. Our cokes came a few moments later just as I was telling Dex who taught me how to dance.

"No one actually, see whenever I hear a certain piece of music that I like and that has a good dance beat, I just picture the dance in my head and I apply it, although it does take a little time, still I practice the move until I get it right and its exactly the way I imagined it."

"Sounds like a lot of work." I smiled. Then I smiled even wider as our orders were placed in front of us. Dex blinked not realizing that time flew by while the both of us were talking. of ate We ate our food then after sitting around and talking some more, we paid then left. Dex took me around town and showed me the high school where he and his sister go, while we were walking around we told each other about what we liked to do in our spare time and about our families. Luckily for me(sort of) I was called away when my communicator beeped.

"What was that?" Dex asked looking around, I quickly hid my communicator behind my back.

"What?"

"That noise. Didn't you hear it?"

"Listen Dex, I have to go to the ladies room." We were near the park, there was a bathroom not too far away. I began to edge toward it.

"Okay." he said.

"Be back in a flash." I said as I began to limp rapidly toward the small building that had a sign in front of it that proclaimed RESTROOM. I quickly ducked inside and checked every stall while I answered my communicator.

"Amy here, go ahead."

"Hey short stuff! So how's the date going?" I stopped in surprise.

"Rocky?"

"Yup."

"I thought this was an emergency."

"Well, it is kind of an emergency, see Zordon and the guys want to know----." But he was cut off by Adam.

"Rocky, will you shut up? Amy get you butt over here now! Our tails are getting kicked all over the place here."

"Hey I was just curious, you can't blame a guy for—ow! Ow! OW!"

"Put a sock in it already!" I heard Tommy shout. I rolled my eyes._ And these are supposed to be the guys that are fighting off the forces of evil, oh Zordon must be feeling so PROUD of himself._I breathed a sigh, got my morpher from my purse and held it up to the sky.

"Its morphin time! Yellow ranger power!" I was soon teleported to the battlefield. _Okay, even through I would love to have it out with Goldar, Rito and the Tengu Warriors, I can't right now. I've got a guy waiting for me._ I threw myself into the battle punching, kicking, throwing off Tengu Warriors and monsters and henchmen alike. I fired several Power Blasts in the most crucial directions, wounding or startling the baddies and then leaping forward and giving them the finishing blow. _I've just got done with dancing at a nightclub, eating and walking around a town with a boy. I should feel tired, but...I feel really energetic, where is this energy and strength coming from?_ I shoved the thought out of my head and focused on the battle before me. Preforming the splits and after preforming a backward flip and grabbing the Tengu by the shoulders I flipped and threw it toward Goldar. He managed to dodge the flying Tengu but he didn't dodge my Power Blast that came flying toward him. He flew back a few feet and was about to rush toward me when Tommy stood in his way both of them clashed, swords drawn punches and kicks flew. I raced at Rito, leap frogged over a Tengu that Billy was battling and made a move that Rito thought was a punch but it was actually a round house kick! That sent him flying! I fired a Power Blast at him, but before it hit him, he vanished._ One down_. I flew at the monster. _I have to finish this before Dex get suspicious._ I charged forward, concentrating extremely hard. My entire body soon glowed with power, my suit glowed yellow. I shot out my fist, the monster let out a shriek as we both collided. I landed on the ground a good 3 feet away from where the monster was, it hit the floor and exploded. Everyone stopped and stared at me.

"Wow!" some one said. The Tengu warriors looked at each other, then turning tail they all flew away, Goldar too. I straighten up and turned to my friends, they were all still and looking at me. I called out to them.

"I'll be home in a bit Kim." before I teleported back to the bathroom in Leawood Park. I quickly jogged out of the bathroom and jogged over to where I had left Dex, only to see that he wasn't there.

"Dex?" I looked around, then I spotted him coming out of the men's room of the bathroom building.

"Sorry about that, hope I didn't keep you wanting too long." he said. I shook my head then we continued with our walk around town then at 10pm we got in the car and Dex drove me back to Angel Grove and dropped me off at my house.

"Thanks, I had a fun time."

"Yeah me too." After giving him a wave, I jogged up the stoop steps, paused, turned and gave Dex a wave. He waved back and drove away, I got out my key but before I could put it in the key hole, the door flew open and Kimberly dragged me inside asking all sorts of questions.


	20. Chapter 20

Chapter 20

"Did you have fun?"

"Did he kiss you goodnight?"

"Was that him dropping you off?"

"Why didn't he walk you to the door?"

"What did you do during your date?"

"Guys! Guys! Lay off for a bit please? Thank you." I said as I walked to the couch and sat down heavily with a sigh. I kicked of my shoes and sat back for a moment. My friends sat down beside me. Silent but eager to hear about the details of my date. I took a deep breath and began to tell them about how it went.

"We had a lot of fun, and he was a really good dancer." Kim was glad that to hear it, the boys(Tommy and Rocky) were relived that Dex didn't kiss me goodnight, but Kimberly was a bit disappointed. I pointed out that Dex was a nice guy and that if he knew the rules of dating, you never kiss on the first date.

"You wait until the 4th or 5th date." I said firmly, though I couldn't help but feel a tad disappointed. _It would have been nice._ I thought to myself, _it would have been my first kiss._ Rocky wanted to know the details right down to the facial expressions, I rolled my eyes and asked if it was him that wanted to know the answers or was it Zordon?

"Its both of us Short stuff, you can't really blame us can you?" Tommy nudged him.

"Oh yeah and the rest of us too." He paused.

"But mostly Zordon." I looked at Rocky for a moment then shrugged my shoulders remembering Kimberly's words _Zordon is like a father to us._

_A father would be worried and so would a mentor._ My friends wanted to know if Dex and I were going to see each other again. I told them that I wanted to. I was planning on calling him the next day and setting up another date, but I wanted the date to take place in the daytime.

"But I haven't really decided yet, I need to think about it."

"So when are we going to meet him?" Tommy asked. I laughed then stopped.

"Oh, you were serious. Um... I really don't know Tommy, maybe when...um...I-I don't know...maybe pretty soon...I don't know."

"Tommy what are you talking about?" Kimberly rounded on him.

"Don't listen to him Amy, although it would be nice to meet your Dex." _My Dex!_

"But more time had to pass, Amy needs to feel more comfortable around him, then Amy will introduce Dex to us." I nodded in agreement relieved that Kimberly had so much experience in dating. I sent her a grateful smile, she grinned back.

"Besides," she said turning back to the others. "Meeting you guys for the first time will probably seem like meeting the parents or the family." I covered my mouth to stifle a yawn. The date, the battle and the questions and talking with my friends was tiring me out.

"Sorry." I said to my friends.

"Its alright, you're tired and we are not helping with all of our questions."

"Yeah, we are going to go."

"And we will grill you tomorrow." Rocky said laughing. Kimberly opened the front door and shoved all of the boys out the door while Adam and Billy were taking turns hitting Rocky on the back of the head. Tommy and Kimberly shared a goodnight and a goodbye kiss, while I limped upstairs and went into my room. After I had brushed my teeth and put on my pj's I sat on the bed and thought about my date, Kimberly came in and said that she was glad that I had a good time, then after wishing me good night she left to go to her room. I stood up turned, pulled back the covers and crawled into bed and looked up at the ceiling. I smiled to myself as I remembered the dance moves that Dex preformed and the small tour of Leawood._ Maybe we could have another tour of Leawood. I would like that._

The next day while the others grilled me for details(Zordon insisted that we talk about my date in the Command Center, but I was pretty sure that he was just as curious as the others) I gave them the details while I thought back to how Kim called Dex mine. _My Dex. That sounds...nice._ A small smile appeared on my face. I shook my head a bit, he wasn't mine not yet anyway. I turned my attention back to my friends and continued with the details, later I called Dex and asked him if he wanted to take me on a tour to see the rest of Leawood. He agreed. Getting my bike ready, I rode to Leawood. It didn't take long, earlier I had scooped out the quickest route. Remembering the street and the address to Dex's house I arrived at his house. Getting off my bike, I limped toward the front door and knocked. I glanced down at my outfit, a long dress with sandals and a yellow tank top. Just as I was about to walk out the door of my house Kim and the others had spotted me and began to preform this weird dance, where they twirled and spun around me, I think it was because this was the first time that I had ever worn the color yellow, I half expected them to chant "One of us. One of us." I had rolled my eyes and limped away. Now the front door opened and I was face to face with Mrs. Stewart.

"Hi, Amy right? Its so nice to finally meet you, Dex has talked about you non stop since you two first met."

"Mom." Dex poked his head out of the kitchen with a pained look on his face, I smiled as I stepped in the living room. A girl was there, she introduced herself as Molly, Dex's sister then came Albee, Dex's little brother. I smiled at the both of them. I looked at Albee, he was African-American. _Hmm. Must be adopted._

"I'll be right there Amy, mom's just making lunch for us." Dex once again poked his head out of the kitchen and glanced at his brother and sister and his eyes narrowed a bit. I looked from Albee to Molly to Dex and back again, it took me a little while to understand. _Molly and Albee must have been eavesdropping on our phone call, they must have told their mom that Dex was taking me out on another date._ Dex's dad came in a few moments later while Molly, Albee and I were on the couch chattering away. 

"Hi, you must be Amy. I'm Hal." He stretched out his hand to grasp mine and shook it.

"Nice to meet you Mr. Stewart."

"Nice to meet you too Amy." We sat down and began talking about where Dex and I were going to go, Mr. Stewart made some suggestions about some of the places around Leawood. Dex was standing behind his father and interrupted him.

"Dad, sorry about this but I want to show Amy the rest of Leawood before it gets late." Mr. Stewart chuckled.

"Sorry about that son." I stood up and followed Dex to the kitchen, the family didn't ask about my limp. _Dex must have told them about the "accident" that I had._ In the kitchen, there was a small cooler that was open, peering into it I saw a couple of sandwiches, some water bottles and a bag of chips. I smiled suddenly remembering the lunches that my own mother made whenever I would go off and explore Angel Grove. Sadness tugged at my face, but knowing that Dex was probably watching me I turned away and thanked Mrs. Stewart. Then after we said goodbye and thank you Dex and I took off. I climbed on my bike while Dex walked beside me. I offered to leave my bike at his house and walk with him but he said no saying that he didn't want to put too much strain on my ankle.

"Oh, okay." I said as I pedaled slowly to match Dex's pace. We reached the Museum of History, getting off my bike we went along with the tour that was going around the museum after the tour we went to the plaza that was in the middle of Leawood, the shops, a video arcade, and stopped at the park to eat. I had to make up a couple of excuses so that I could go and help my friends battle Zedd's monsters, but all in all I had a pretty good time. Dex disappeared a few times but he would reappear breathless, saying that he would get nervous for some reason and just had to burn off some of that nervousness by running.

"Sorry I didn't tell you about that before." he said as soon as he got his breath back.

"That's quite all right, we all have our little quirks." And we continued with the tour, our final stop was the bay that Dex had told me about during our first meeting. With the sun reflecting off of the water it was quite lovely. I looked at Dex and smiled at his profile. _But its even nicer to have someone to share this great view with._


	21. Chapter 21

Chapter 21

The weeks passed and Dex and I continued to see more and more of each other. Kimberly was glad and kept pestering me, after Dex dropped me off, if he's kissed me yet. The answer was always the same and she would look at me with a shocked expression on her face I began to see more and more of Count Dregon too and of the Masked Rider. Whenever Dregon (mostly his henchmen and what Zordon called Insectivores) the Masked Rider would always show up and defend or help me kick their butts. It was tiring, fighting off one enemy while at the same time fighting off another. The Masked Rider would apologize for bringing all of this on the rest of us. He seemed to regret ever showing himself to us. And I felt sorry for him.

"I'm sorry..." I said to him. The Masked Rider turned to me. There was sadness in his voice.

"No, you didn't do anything wrong, instead of apologizing you should be blaming me."

"That's not true. None of us could have known that this would happen, any of this." said Tommy. The Masked Rider gave him a long look, then he turned and walked away.

A few days after the battle Kimberly had this to say to me.

"I think the Masked Rider likes you Amy." I turned to her startled.

"What? What makes you say that Kim?"

"Oh come on tell me you haven't noticed the way he looks at you." she grinned.

"Kim, in case you haven't noticed. I can't see the expression on his face. He is wearing a mask." I felt unnerved by all of this._ The Masked Rider?_ I shook my head firmly.

"Well, besides that he's totally into you. I've noticed how his hand lingers on your arm whenever his helping you up, or how he never takes his eyes off of you when he's talking to the rest of us. And how he's always saving you." I gave her a _Are you blind or what? _look. I took a deep breath, _very_ deep breath. And looked her in the eye.

"Kimberly, the reason Masked Rider is always saving me is because his enemy is after me for my powers. He's only protecting me." Her eyes gleamed. _Ughhh. Here it comes._

"Right, he's _protecting _you. But when it comes to the rest of us, he's helping. There is a difference between helping and protecting." _God! Where does she get this stuff??_

"So?" she said her eyes on me. I stared at her for a minute.

"So what?"

"Do you have any growing feelings for him?" I raised on eyebrow. _I think my sister has gone bye-bye. _I shook my head at her.

"No, I do not have growing feelings for him. In fact if you must know, Kimberly Hart, I have growing feelings for Dex so there." I stuck out my tongue at her and flounced away. But what Kim said made me think. _Could the Masked Rider really have...fallen in love with me? _It was all very flattering and all but I didn't have any feelings for him. The only feelings that went through me whenever I saw him was gratitude and questions. There was still a lot of questions that I wanted to ask him. Questions that for some strange reason, Zordon couldn't answer. Suddenly I pictured the Masked Rider and Dex. A thought suddenly crossed my mind. _What if the Masked Rider sees me with Dex and gets jealous? What if he tries to attack Dex? Can I really fight him? After he's saved me countless of times from Count Dregon?_ _Whoa Amy, get a grip girl_. _You're worrying over nothing. It may not happen. The Masked Rider may already have a girlfriend or something on his home planet or wherever he's from. And when he sees you, you just happen to remind him of her. Besides all those times when the Masked Rider wouldn't take his eyes off of you and hold your arm in his hand a little too long... it--it was just because he wanted to make sure that you were okay. Yeah that's it. He only wanted to make sure that you were okay. And the Masked Rider is not in love with you, he just has a crush on you. Its cute but still the next time you see him, you will have a firm sit down with him and break it to him gently that you have someone in your life. Yeah, that's what I will do. Just remember girl. Do not tell him Dex's name or where he lives._

Over the next few days between battling monsters, Goldar, Rito and Tengu Warriors; I kept thinking about the Masked Rider._ Maybe there's a way to contact him_, _there just has to be. I don't want to lead this guy on._ On one of our dates, I asked Dex if he knew the Masked Rider. He got this funny look on his face. He took a deep breath then said.

"No, I don't know him. I've heard of him but I haven't met him." He gave me a sidelong glance.

"Why?"

"Oh, I just wanted to tell him something." I said. Dex noticed that I wasn't really looking at him. _Ever since she was first attacked by Dregon she always seems to be a bit distracted. _He thought I would have put the incident with the Masked Rider and Count Dregon out of my mind but until recently Dex has noticed that whenever that I would catch sight of the Masked Rider, he couldn't help but notice a strange look that I would have on my face. Dex looked me again. And his stomach plummeted.

_She has that look on her face right now!! It's the same look that she would get whenever she would see the Masked Rider_. He wanted to yell and shout his anger and despair.

_She's in love with the Masked Rider!!_


	22. Chapter 22

Chapter 22

"How many times do I have to tell you Kim. I am not in love with the Masked Rider!"

"People who say that are actually in love with person they say they aren't in love with." I threw my hands up in the air in exasperation and turned to Tommy. We were in the living room and what started out as a nice and normal conversation turned to a nice and weird conversation.

"Tommy can you please talk some sense into your girlfriend and get that impossible idea out of her head?" I pleaded. Tommy, who was drinking some water, glanced from me to Kim and back again. He set the water bottle down and cleared his throat and turned toward me, a serious expression on his face and a questioning look in his eye. _Oh no!_

"Okay, I know that you'll yell at me but I have ask. Are you in love with the Masked Rider?"

"Oh for the love of Christ!!"

"Well, it seems rather obvious, the way you're always staring after him after he leaves, and how you are always fighting by his side."

"You two have gone seriously loony, you do know that don't you? Come on Tommy, I fight by his side because I am helping him. Super heroes do that ya know! They help each other!"

"Yeah, but the way that you look at him..."

"I only look at him that way because I am trying to figure out if he knows about me and my powers, in fact I'm surprised that he hasn't asked me any questions!"

"It looks as if you have fallen for the guy." I struggled to keep my voice calm.

"Look just because I look at a guy a certain way doesn't mean that I've fallen in love with him and I fight beside him because, given the amount of power that this Dregon dude and his cronies have, I'm afraid that he'll get seriously hurt." I realized too late that I had said the wrong thing. Kimberly's eyes gleamed.

"So you're afraid for him? That means that you do like him."

"Kim, you get afraid for me whenever I pilot the Bear Zord." Rocky isn't of any help in this department. In fact he makes fun of Kimberly by shouting and screaming

"It's Bearzilla! Run for your lives!"

"Yeah but this is a different kind of fear, you fear that your precious Masked Rider will get hurt."_ Oh, I am going to have soooo much fun with her Zord after this._ I've always wanted to pilot the Crane Zord. _I think I'll take it out for a joy ride._ I gritted my teeth.

"So do you think about him?"asked Tommy. Before I could stop myself

"Yes, I do think about him but..."

"Ha! I knew it you are in love with him!" I leapt off the couch finally having enough.

"I AM NOT IN LOVE WITH THE MASKED RIDER!! I AM IN LOVE WITH DEX!!" I limped toward the door, opened it and slammed it shut on my way out. I needed to get away here so I decided to head to Leawood. _I need to get away from Angel Grove for a while. _I walked to the side of the house, concentrated and morphed into a puddle of liquid, and I sped away, seriously not caring if I got yelled at later. By the time that I came to Leawood, I was cooled down. Materializing in my original state behind a building I stepped out from behind it and continued to walk around Leawood. _Why are they thinking that I'm in love with the Masked Rider? I'm not, I know I'm not. I'm in love with Dex_. _It would be unfair to Dex if I developed feelings for him. And it would be hard to love two people at the same time, more than one of those people will end up getting hurt_. _Maybe if I talk to Zordon he can talk some sense into Kim. Or maybe give me permission to hogtie Kimberly to the Ape Zord and hold a race between the Ape Zord and the Frog Zord._ My wandering took me to the Leawood Bay, the afternoon sun was sparkling down on the water and I smiled as I looked across it. _Heh, first time that I haven't gone to mom and dad to help me solve my problems. _Behind me I saw a stone block shaped like a sqaure, climbing up onto it I suddenly found myself thinking of the Masked Rider. _I wonder if he's nearby. Since he's a super hero he must have a secret identity. _I was about to step off when I was startled when someone called my name.

"Eekk!" I was about to hit the pavement when someone caught me.

"I gotcha ya." I looked into the face of Dex, he grinned down at me.

"Don't tell me that you practicing your take offs now?" I smiled at him.

"We have to stop meeting like this." He laughed as he set me down on my feet and we separated. _Having his arms around me...that was nice._ I snapped to when he asked me.

"So what are you doing in Leawood." I hesitated for a minute, then decided to tell him the truth.

"I had to get away from my friends for a bit." I said turning back to look at the water. He looked at me.

"What happened? You have a fight?"

"Yeah, they think that I have feelings for the Masked Rider." Dex's face darkened and he controlled his voice when he asked.

"And do you?" I surprised him by laughing. I turned toward him.

"Oh Dex. Not you too? No. I think he's a nice guy but, I don't think he's my type." In Dex's head he preformed a little victory dance. We spent the rest of the day walking around Leawood and chatting. As I was walking home, I felt cheered up. Talking with Dex had helped me . And I couldn't help but wonder something. _I wonder when I'm going to have enough courage to hold Dex's hand._


	23. Chapter 23

Chapter 23

One night, on one of our dates I finally summoned up enough courage to slip my hand into Dex's. He glanced at me through the corner of his eye and smiled. My heart slowed somewhat and I laughed to myself. _I face monsters on a daily basis but what really gets my heart hammering is me actually holding a boy's hand!_ Dex and I were walking along the beach in Leawood, we had chosen the perfect time. The sun was setting, it had changed the sky to a pink and orange color which reflected off the water. I wasn't really into the beach but stopping at the edge of the water and watching it with Dex, I thought nothing could look more handsome...uh... beautiful than a sunset. Dex had turned toward me, it took me a while to turn toward him, for at that moment I was thinking about my mother and how she would have loved this sunset. _Hope she's enjoying it up in heaven._ I noticed Dex looking at me and I turned toward him, it took me a moment to realize what he was going to do when he began to lower his face toward mine. My heart thudded with nervousness and excitement. I took a small breath then raised my head toward his, we were mere inches from each other when I felt his hands on my shoulders. He shoved me back with a shout of "Look Out!!" I let out a shriek as I saw a red beam cut across the air where the both of us once stood. I landed on the ground, Dex was a foot across from me, but what made me really stare was a crystal had appeared on his forehead, then it vanished as Dex scrambled to his feet. I jumped to my feet also. He turned to me.

"Are you alright?" I nodded, without warning sharp boomerangs began streaking toward us, both Dex and I began to back flip as fast as we could, trying to get away from them but they followed us with incredible speed. Dex and I both hit the ground as we crossed paths making the boomerangs clash in mid-air. Both of us were panted as we looked at each other and looked for our assailants. They leaped from the sky on top of us! We barely dodged them and before we knew it each of us were fighting Cyclopter and Double- Face. Double-Face was leading me away from Dex constantly pushing me back until we had both reached a certain spot. Then the ground behind me exploded and an insectivore burst out of the ground and grabbed me before I could get away. It had two claws and a long tail which had a stinger at the end. I was sure it was a scorpion. Dex saw and started to run toward me but the insectivore put its stinger to my throat. He froze then turned to Double-Face and shouted at him.

"Let her go! She doesn't have any part in this."

"Actually as of now, she becomes part of this situation." snapped Double-Face. _Why are they acting as if they know each other? _

"Let her go now!"

"Not until you give us what we want!"shouted Cyclopter. Dex looked at me, his hands were clenched to his sides, his face contorted in anger. He raised both of his hands and shouted.

"Ecto Phase Activate! Masked Rider!" My mouth dropped open. Dex had turned into the Masked Rider! _He's the Masked Rider! Dex is the Masked Rider! _I was swept out of the monster's arms by Masked Rider and led a few feet away, he set me down on the sand. I was still staring at him, he turned away. He stood up.

"I'll be back." Then he paused and said. "I'm sorry I got you involved in my fight." then he dashed off to face Double-Face, Cyclopter and the insectivore. I continued to stare at Dex, the boy that I had flirted with the first time we had meet, the boy that I had feelings for, the boy that Kimberly would say had competition for my feelings thanks to the Masked Rider, _who saved me numerous times whenever Dregon attacked me! _My brain kicked itself into gear. I stood up, I was going to repay the Masked Rider, no, Dex Stewart, for all those times that he rescued me and put his life on the line for me. Before I knew it I began to run toward the battle and before I could even stop and think I shouted.

"Hey! Get you hands off of my boyfriend!!" Summoning my power, I slammed Cyclopter and Double-Face with a Power Blast!

"What the–?" shouted Masked Rider as he turned and stared at me. I raised my morpher in the air._ Zordon's going to be sooooo mad at me._

"Its Morphin Time! Yellow Ranger Power!" I morphed into the yellow ranger and stood beside Masked Rider. He was still staring at me.

"Amy!" I glanced at him.

"Yeah, I know. Let's talk about this later okay?" it took a few minutes for Dex to agree then he turned toward his enemies. Both of us made a pretty good team, and we finished off the insectivore in no time flat. The other two took off with their tails between their legs, er...that's what I like to think.

We stood before each other, still in our costumes. Both of us powered down at the same time.

"Wow! Unbelievable!" I said.

"You're telling me." laughed Dex. He took a step toward me.

"Thanks for your help." I glanced downward shyly.

"Well, I–I wanted to thank you for saving my life all those times."

"It was my pleasure." he said. He was standing in front of me, he bent his head down and I raised my head toward his, and our lips met in a long kiss. As we walked back to his car holding hands, silent each of our own worlds Dex broke the silence when he looked at me and said.

"I'm really glad that you called me your boyfriend." I glanced at him and blushed.

"Yeah. I–it kind of just popped out of my mouth." He looked at me in surprise then understanding. Then he took a deep breath.

"I'm also glad because I don't have to be in competition with my alto-ego." I turned and stared at him.

"You were in competition with the Masked Rider? Why?" Now it was Dex's turn to blush.

"W–well, with the way you would react whenever the Masked Rider would appear and all those questions that you asked me, I–I thought that maybe...you had fallen in love with him." I smiled.

"You're laughing at me."

"No, I'm not."

"Yes, you are."

"Actually, on that day that I was over at Leawood Bay, I was thinking about the Masked Rider. But I only wanted to tell him that I was flattered because my sister thought that he had a crush on me. But I already had a guy that was constantly on my mind. You Dex." I leaned on his shoulder as he drove me home.

"Well, I'll let him know. I'm pretty sure he won't be too heart- broken but I'm pretty sure he'll get over it." I laughed.

We came to my house and Dex walked me to the door.

"I really need to introduce you to my friends, they're dying to met you."

"I would like that."

"I hope my sister isn't watching us." I peered into the windows but I couldn't see anyone.

"Heh, my sister was hoping that I had already kissed you after the second date. Dad had to explain to her that gentlemen don't kiss on the second date." I smiled at him.

"No, they kiss after their girlfriend save them from certain doom." We wrapped our arms around each other and kissed again.

"Good night."

"Good night." Dex walked down the steps, got into his car and drove off. I stood there for a few moments, enjoying the warmth that I felt on my lips. I spun around happily. I preformed a little dance as I unlocked the door and stepped inside the house.


	24. Chapter 24

Chapter 24

I was getting ready for bed a few minutes later when Zordon called me.

"Amy. The Command Center. Now!" I sighed, feeling a sense of dread come over me. _There is a good side to this. I'll get a good yelling instead of a beating...and a whipping. _Pressing the two buttons on the sides of my communicator I soon appeared in front of Zordon. He glared down at me. _I've never seen Zordon this angry before, actually I've never seen him show any emotion before. Other that sadness and worry. A_lpha wasn't there. _Must have teleported to Billy's house once he saw Zordon's face. Lucky guy. _He quickly launched into a lecture about revealing my secret identity to another super hero, not to mention the villain and how it was unnecessary in the first place. How I should have morphed into a puddle, found a hiding place, called the others; and then morphed myself into a ranger and joined in the battle without anyone being the wiser. He asked me what was I thinking morphing in front of the Masked Rider and Count Dregon's cronies?

"First of all Zordon, Dex revealed himself to me first."

"And because he did that you just had to return the favor?" he snapped..

"No, he was in trouble. It was three against one over there and besides I couldn't just leave him there, it would have taken too long to find a hiding place, call the guys and morph and rejoin him in the battle. Dex would have gotten seriously hurt."

"It would have taken a matter of seconds!"

"It would have still taken too long." _Am I actually arguing with Zordon? Too freaky._

"And I am sorry for not calling the guys. I was only thinking about Dex and the odds against him. And besides Dregon and Dex would have found out that I was the Yellow Ranger sooner or later."

"Thanks to you, they found out a lot sooner than expected. " I began to get angry.

"I morphed in front of all of them to save Dex and to help him, is that so wrong?"

"It is wrong if it means bringing more enemies to Angel Grove! I know that you care about this boy, but just because he showed you that he was the Masked Rider and that he was surrounded by enemies does not give you the right to save him by revealing yourself in front of him and to his enemies."

"And was I supposed to do? Wait for the others to get there and find that The Masked Rider had lost the battle?!"

"No, it means that in battle you have to use common sense, you can't leap into battle blindly and based on your feelings and expect it to turn out alright in the end. It doesn't work like that."

"I know! I know Zordon. Trust me I know."

"No, you don't know. You're young, you still don't have the full experience of a ranger the others do, from now on I want you to use your common sense in battle and listen to the others and not just to yourself and your feelings."

"What?!"

"I mean it Amy, after what you did tonight Count Dregon might come here to Angel Grove and begin attacking its citizens. He and Zedd could join forces or create a whole new war fighting each other, either way it would mean thousands maybe million of innocent peoples lives."

"He won't attack other people, he's only after me Zordon. He wants my power."

"Are you certain that he won't come here?" I nodded, although I wasn't sure myself. But I won't admit that to Zordon. _I know I did the right thing._ Zordon dismissed me and I teleported back to my room. I punched my pillow angrily before I settled down to sleep. _I know I did the right thing, I didn't want to see Dex get hurt. __I can't believe that Zordon said that it was wrong! Who does he think he is? My father?_

A day later after getting tired of Kim's pestering, I finally asked Dex if he could met my friends. He agreed and I told him that we would all meet at the Angel Grove mall. The both of us still hadn't talked about what had gone on at the beach, I guess we were still a bit blown away, and I still hadn't told the guys about Zordon's berating or the fact that my boyfriend is the Masked Rider. I smiled to myself as I thought of this. _Guess I'm still getting used to having a super hero as a boyfriend. _Kim had ran ahead of me to meet the guys at the fountain in the middle of the plaza. _I hope my friends won't ask Dex a whole bunch of questions. _I thanked my lucky stars that Dex had wanted to meet them today and not when we had first begun to date. _With the way the told me that Zordon was going to teleport him to some far off planet of in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, they would have seriously scared him off._ I shrugged my shoulders, _that's not going to happen anytime soon._ I glanced at my watch, it was 2pm. _I hope Dex found his way alright. _I was supposed to meet him in the south side of the parking lot, soon I approached the lot and after a quick look around, I spotted him. I jumped up and down and waved to him, he had a bright smile on his face as he jogged over to met me, after giving me a kiss hello we went to met my friends. Soon we came upon them, Tommy's eyes lit up when he saw Dex and he leapt up with his hand outstretched, before I could introduce him however...

"Dex? Oh wow! I can't believe you're actually here. How are you?" Dex shook Tommy's hand, a warm smile on his face.

"I'm good Tommy, and I see you and the other's haven't changed a bit since we last met. What's up Rocky? Adam? Billy?"

"Oh my gosh, so this is the Masked Rider? Oh, wow! Hi! I'm oh, but you already know me. "

"You must be the Pink Ranger? I'm right aren't I?"

"Wow! How'd you guess?"

"Hold it!!" I shouted. Everyone turned to stare at me.

"You guys already know who Dex is?" Billy nodded.

"Yeah, we know who he is, we met him up on Edenio we already told you Amy."

"Yes, you told me. But you never told me that you _knew_ who the Masked Rider really was!"

Adam had an embarrassed grin on his face, so did everyone else. All except Dex who was looking at everyone in bewilderment.

"Well, Short stuff, with everything that's happened to us in the past year, we kinda sorta forgot about knowing who the Masked Rider really was. You understand don't you?" I turned on Kim.

"Hey! I was busy nursing a cold and fighting a monster. So I wasn't there!" Dex was looking around.

"Where's Aisha? Did she retire? Is that why Amy is the yellow ranger?" Despite myself I flinched. I haven't thought of Aisha in months. Kim gave him a quick run down on what had happened to her, Dex expressed sympathy toward the others, they were grateful. The conversation soon switched to happier topics as we began to walk toward one of the nearby restaurants, like how was it that I could still morph into the yellow ranger even though the third rule clearly stated that if we revealed ourselves as rangers, we would lose the power. Billy had a theory on that.

"We retain out powers if we reveal ourselves in front of other super heroes, or in front of people who will become our allies in the future." He gave a nod to Rocky and Adam.

"Or, to people who happen to be friends of our allies."

"Like Alpha 5." Dex said. Billy nodded. My head was spinning with this new information. But the one thing that stood out in my mind was

"You guys met Dex on that planet Edenio right?" They nodded.

"That's right."

"Does that mean that Dex is a..."

"Yes Amy it does, I'm an alien, and a prince."

I stopped and stared at him. I put one hand to my forehead. _This was all a bit too much to take in._ Dex turned to me, stopping also. The others did too.

"I'm sorry that I didn't tell you sooner. I thought that I should give you time to get used to the fact that I was the Masked Rider, I was going to tell you about where I really came from, but meeting your friends and all..." his voice trailed off.

"Sorry about that Ames." said Adam. "Didn't mean to make your head spin." I nodded vaguely as my friends and I and my boyfriend began to walk toward the restaurant, went inside after waiting in a short line, took our seats and ordered our food. Even after I had thought about it and accepted it, it still bewildered me that my boyfriend could be an alien prince and the Masked Rider.

_Can my life as a ranger get anymore weirder?_


	25. Chapter 25

Chapter 25

After getting used to the fact that both of us were super heros fighting evil whenever it reared its ugly head, aside from that Dex and I found out that we had a lot in common.

Firstly Dex was also an orphan. He told me that Count Dregon had killed both of them when Dex was just a little boy, his grandfather, King Lexian had raised him ever since and had trained him just in case Count Dregon, who had been banished for Edenoi, would came back, thinking that he would get his hands on the crown. Which he did. Dregon and Lexian both battled, Lexian bested him, Dregon received horrible scars on his face.

"He wears a mask so they can't be seen." I leaned against his shoulder. _He's suffered so much._

"Have you ever met him face to face?" I asked. He shook his head.

"No, all that I'm telling you is from the accounts that my grandfather told me. But I'll recognize him, he would project his image on Edenoi to instill fear in all of us. I didn't fear him." He looked at me.

"Do you fear Lord Zedd?" I paused. Then said truthfully.

"I'm terrified of him, but if I show any fear toward him, then he would know that he's gained the upper hand to defeat me. So I only show anger and hatred." I was silent for a moment.

"I guess that's the only thing that will get us through this war, if we show compassion or fear toward our enemies then we will seem weak which will give them a chance to win." Dex nodded in understanding.

"We can't let them think that."

"We won't Dex." After kissing softly, Dex told me that he wanted me to introduce me to a couple of his best friends.

"But it's kind of a long walk, I could ask Hal for the car, I just hope my mom isn't using it." I looked up at him.

"I've got a better way." I told him about my being able to morph into a puddle of liquid. His eyes widen.

"Really? That's amazing! Can you show me?" After looking around to make sure that no one could see me, I morphed in front of him.

"Wow! That is so awesome! Can you morph more than one person?"

"Yeah." I grabbed both of his hands and with a wide grin on my face I said to him.

"Hang on." I concentrated, both of us turned silver then melted together into a puddle.

"Whoa!" yelped Dex. I giggled as we speed toward the outskirts of Leawood. Soon we came to a cave, materializing in front of the cave, it took Dex a couple of minutes and a couple of deep breaths to compose himself. After a while he gave himself a good shake and with a smile on his face and a light in his eyes that said that he rather enjoyed the ride, he took my hand and led me into the cave. Inside were two vehicles, a motorcycle and a red car.

"Hey, too cool. You've got vehicles also." Tommy and the others had already introduced the Shark cycles to me, we only used them rarely, except for Rocky. He and Adam would record both of themselves standing beside their respective bikes and in their ranger suits and try to make a date video. You know what I'm talking about.

"Hi! My name is Rocky Desantos, otherwise known as the Red Ranger of the Power Ranger Team. I'm looking for a special kind of girl that likes..." And he would tick off the qualities of his ideal girl; Kimberly and I would be in the background making fun of him which would give everyone a good laugh, especially Zordon. And he would laugh even harder when Rocky would catch us and begin to chase us around the Command Center. It came as a shock to me that the guy could laugh, he seems like Mr. Serious. Anyway, the bike, who was called Combat Chopper was the first to speak.

"Hey who's the cute girl boss? She the one that who've been telling us about?" I stared. _Too cool. _Dex smiled as I inspected Combat Chopper, the introductions were made. Next came Mango, the talking red car. _Cool, like Knight Rider!_ I thought to myself as I said hello to Magno. I suddenly thought of Alpha alone up in the Command Center,I made a mental note to tell Alpha about Combat Chopper and Magno. Dex had packed a few drinks and some snacks within Magno, we ate and chatted, then both of us had to go our separate ways to fight off Lord Zedd and Count Dregon.

A few days later, despite all the weird turns that my life has taken ever since I took on the responsibilities of becoming the Yellow Ranger, nothing compared to what happened one Thursday, when Double-Face, and Cyclopter decided to pay a visit to Angel Grove. The battle was like any other only Dregon's men seemed to have upgraded themselves a bit. Double-Face sent the razor-sharp boomerangs that nearly sliced their way into our suits, just as it flew over to us I concentrated and halted its flight inches from my face. At the same time a third and a fourth boomerang came out of nowhere and attacked me from all sides!

"Amy!" yelled Dex as they hit their target. When the smoke cleared, I was lying on the ground, pain...everywhere! I was struggling to clear my mind, clear it of the pain that was coursing through my body. Dex was trying to reach me but Cyclopter and the insectivore were in the way and everything Dex did was to no avail. I let out a groan as I rolled onto my side, Double-Face approached me and squatting down he looked me over.

"I have to say, I find all of this very satisfactory. I haven't felt this elated since the time I watched that human male die. The other human, the female went right after him She was your mother I believe?" I stared up at him and my eyes widen.

"You? You killed my mother?" Double-Face laughed.

"No, no. That honor was for Lord Zedd himself. I'm talking about the male human, I killed him with this sword that I have in my hands."

"You killed my father!!" He laughed again.

"You must be joking. You actually called that human father when he, in truth, wasn't your father?" he laughed again. Then stood up and raised the sword high over me.

"Well, I'm pretty sure that he'll be able to explain it to you once you met up with him in the after life." The sword's tip was flying toward me! I shut my eyes and screamed as loud as I could

"Yellow Ranger Power Blast Quake!!" Suddenly the ground beneath us begin to shake then golden light began to blast out of the ground, Dregon's men let out screams as they were flung into the air. Then all was silent and still. I lay on the ground for a moment, then I felt the vibrations of someone running, soon Dex appeared by my side along with my friends. Helping me up, I leaned against Dex as we all teleported to the Command Center.

"Sit down Amy."

"Try to heal yourself."

"Billy, get the medical kit."

"Someone get her some water." I sat down on a couch that appeared behind me, my mind a complete blank. _How can it be? How can it be that my dad...is not my dad? How can it be? Why was I never told? Count Dregon's men...they were there on that day that mom was killed. _I looked up at Zordon, suddenly wondering if he had known that Count Dregon had been at my house. Zordon stared down at me. We stared at each other for a full minute then Zordon looked away. Dex was holding a cup of water to my lips and I drank thirstily. The cup was taken away from me as soon as it was emptied. Turning to him I smiled my thanks, he nodded. I looked down at my locket and I began to concentrate. My locket glowed and the glow spread all over my body. I let out a sigh as the pain became nothing but a memory. The glow faded and I got off the couch and faced my friends.

"Thanks you guys."

"No problem Shortstuff."

"We're just glad to see that you're alright." said Adam. Kim hugged me tightly.

"You alright, you seemed kind of out of it a minute ago?" said Billy.

"Anything wrong?" asked Dex. I hesitated, not sure that I wanted to ask Zordon this question in front of everybody..._they're probably find out sooner or later_._ Besides I don't want to keep anymore secrets from them._ I took a deep breath and told them what Double-Face had told me. The others stared at me in shock.

"Dregon was there?" Dex said his eyes on me. I nodded.

"B–but how can that be? When we went there to try and save your parents, we only saw Zedd, Goldar and the Tengus." said Kim.

"He must have used an invisibility device to cloak Double-Face so that not even I or Zordon could see him. The scanners didn't even pick him up." said Alpha. I was silent a moment then I looked up at Zordon. He looked at me.

"Zordon...Double-Face told me that h–he killed my dad...but he also said that my dad wasn't my dad. H–how can that be?" Zordon looked at me for a few moments silently.

"Because the man whom you thought was your father wasn't your father." I stared at him.

"I am."


	26. Chapter 26

Chapter 26

I stared in shock at Zordon. The others, they were as shocked as I was. I closed my eyes and began to shake my head over and over. _Too much. Its all too much._ I forced my eyes open and raised my head and stared at Zordon. He looked down at me, he looked different somehow. Tired and old as he explained that he wished that I hadn't found out this way.

"I prayed to god that you wouldn't find out this way especially from one of Count Dregon's men." I was silent, after a long moment I finally spoke but my voice was edged with growing anger.

"When were you ever going to tell me?" he looked at me surprised.

"I–uh I didn't think that ..."

"YOU WERE NEVER GOING TO TELL ME WERE YOU?" I screamed at him. He looked startled to see the rage and anger on my face. I had leaped up off the couch and screamed at him.

"YOU THINK THAT I ENJOY THIS? THAT I LIKE HAVING MY MIND SCREWED WITH? ONLY TO FIND OUT THAT EVERYTHING WAS A FREAKING LIE!! THE POWER RANGERS SAVE THE WORLD ON A DAILY BASIS AND THEY ARE INCAPABLE OF SAVING TWO CIVILIANS, BOTH OF WHOM HAPPEN TO BE MY MOTHER AND FATHER!! AND IT TURNS OUT THAT COUNT DREGON'S MEN WERE THERE AND THEY KILLED MY DAD, WHO IN REALITY WASN'T MY DAD AFTER ALL. YOU ZORDON, YOU HAPPEN TO BE MY REAL FATHER. DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA HOW THAT MAKES ME FEEL?! I TRUSTED YOU!! I THOUGHT THAT YOU OF ALL PEOPLE COULD DO NO WRONG, AND YET YOU FAILED TO TELL ME THIS PIECE OF NEWS. WHAT OTHER SECRETS HAVE YOU BEEN KEEPING FROM US ZORDON HUH? LIKE MAYBE, PERHAPS THAT YOU KNEW THAT MOM WAS GOING TO DIE THAT DAY??DID YOU KNOW THAT? WELL? DID YOU?? AND SECOND OF ALL YOU KNEW WHO COUNT DREGON WAS!! YOU KNEW AND YOU PRETENDED THAT YOU DIDN'T KNOW A BLASTED THING ABOUT HIM.

"Amy I—."

"SHUT UP!! JUST SHUT UP AND DON'T TALK TO ME." Then I took off.

And hour later, Kimberly found me at the park, I was sitting on a bench just staring at the passing cars. She passed the cemetery where my mother and my fa—stepfather were buried. She looked at my mother's grave, the dirt looked disturbed and judging by the groves and the fact that there was some dirt on the tombstone, justified that in a fit of rage I had kicked dirt all over the tombstone. Kimberly stared for a few minutes at the scene before her, she turned her head and saw me. Taking a deep breath, she strode over to me and sat on the right side of me. I glanced at her then continued to stare out at the street.

"Hey." she finally said.

"Hey." I said, I sniffed then I wiped at my eyes. She was silent for a few minutes, the only sounds from me were sniffing.

"So, how did the others and Dex take this little tidbit of news that Zordon," I said the name sarcastically. "Is my real father?" Kim took a deep breath. She stared straight ahead.

"Well, after everyone got over the initial shock of it. Rocky yelled at Zordon for adding another shocking moment on your growing list of shocking moments and he said that you really didn't need this. I mean considering that you're trying to fill in Aisha's shoes and all."

"And fighting another psycho who wants my powers."

"And fighting another psycho who wants your powers." Kimberly nodded. She paused. Then said.

"Then Zordon turned on Dex and began yelling at him and accusing him of bringing all of this on you."

"He did not!" I shouted angrily, turning to her my eyes flashing.

"That's what Dex said but before he could get in another word Zordon told him that if The Masked Rider hadn't come along none of this would be happening in the first place."

"That's a downright lie!!" My eyes were narrowed in anger. Kimberly continued, turning to me.

"Tommy began yelling at Zordon, telling him that he had no right to talk to Dex like that, because as the Masked Rider, he has saved you countless of times. He told Zordon that a mentor shouldn't keep secrets, because even if secrets are kept to protect a person, it ends up hurting him/her. Dex said that even if Masked Rider had never come along and made himself known to you, all of this would still be happening, I think Dex thinks that Count Dregon is after you not because he wants your powers but because you happen to be the Masked Rider's girlfriend and Zordon's daughter.." I gritted my teeth. I forced myself to ignore the last part.

"So Dregon thinks that the only way to really hurt Dex is to hurt me. Great." I said in a sarcastic tone. "We have something else in common." I turned to her.

"What is the situation now?" Kim took a breath then let it out.

"Well everyone is pretty peeved at Zordon, he was never one to keep secrets from us, in fact we didn't know that he _had_ any secrets."

"Until I came along." I said bitterly.

"Amy, you can't blame yourself for this."

"Yes, I can!"

"You had know idea that you were going to get tangled in all of this." _I knew exactly what I was getting myself into when I accepted that coin from Tommy but all of this...Blast it!! I should have fought Zedd harder I should have fought more ruthlessly. I should have used the full strength of my powers on him._ I hung my head, emotion welling inside of me. _What's the point? Even if I had never made that bargain with him, I would have still been placed under that spell, Aisha would still be dead, I still would have been recruited, my life torn and scrambled, my friend's already upside down lives turned more upside down by the fact that Zordon happens to be my father._ I took a deep breath, raised my head and looked at Kim.

"Where is everyone?"

"They're over at the house, waiting to talk to you. Dex is there too. No one's blaming him, I mean even if you had never met Count Dregon or the Masked Rider in the first place, this would have leaked out somehow. Probably by another intergalactic alien that Zedd or Rita hired to screw with you more."

"Hmm." Was all I said. I turned back to stare at the passing cars, Kimberly stayed with me for a while more not saying anything or trying to make conversation. I'm pretty sure another hour must have passed, because the sun was setting. I slowly got to my feet and began to limp out of the park, Kimberly followed me silently. We arrived at the house I stopped and stared at it for a while. Taking a deep breath Kim and I went up the front steps. Reaching the door, I paused, my hand on the doorknob. _I—I wish that I had never made that bargain or accepted the yellow ranger power coin. But its too late for wishing, wishing doesn't solve anything._ _I_ opened the front door and saw my friends and boyfriend leapt up from the couches where they were sitting on.

"Amy, are you alright?"

"Of coarse she isn't, she's just been dealt another dizzying blow." snapped Billy glaring at Rocky.

"I'll say and by our great leader, I can't believe that Zordon is..." Tommy said.

"Do you think that Alpha knew? I mean he's been with Zordon for a while now..." Adam said.

"No I'm didn't know."

"Tentomon, what are you doing here?"

"I need a bit of time out of the Command Center...after an announcement like that..."

"Tento, I'm sorry."

"It's not your fault Amy, Zordon should have told us and you a lot more sooner."

"Really? Would that have lessen the shock?" snapped Rocky angrily. All of us had sat down on the couch, I was leaning against Dex, who had been the first one to reach me.

"Are you alright? I mean really?" he murmured. I closed my eyes for a bit. I wanted to forget everything that happened, I didn't want this knowledge or the responsibility. I wanted to be normal again. I opened my eyes and looked at Dex.

"Yes, I'm okay. I–I'm just shocked that's all but I'm pretty sure that I could deal with it."

"Do you need some time alone Amy?" asked Alpha. I shook my head.

"No, I'm good. We need to get this out into open air anyway." I straighten up and looked around at all of them.

"So none of you knew that Zordon was..." Tommy shook his head.

"No, we didn't. We only knew that a thousand years ago he fought Rita, won a rigged coin toss, got imprisoned in a tube and created the Power Rangers." Adam spoke up.

"I–it never occurred to us that he...and you..." Billy, who had a thoughtful look on his face said.

"Zordon being your...um..dad...it would certainly explain where you got your powers. Perhaps we could ask him..."

"Later Billy." Tommy said firmly.

"Right now, I think Amy needs a bit of space. I mean news like this, it does not get accepted lightly you know?"

"I think all of us needs a bit of space, this...this really just blew me away." Rocky said. The others nodded. I turned to Alpha, suddenly remembering Mango and Combat Chopper, but I suddenly felt that everything that has happened to me was catching up to me all at once. I felt tired and sapped of all of my energy. So I didn't mention anything, Dex seeming to read my thoughts, told Alpha about the cave and invited him to stay over there until all of us came to terms with what we had learned. Alpha agreed, then he teleported himself away. The others got up and decided to go for walks or drives or to just work out. Dex got up to leave also but I stopped him and asked him to stay with me for a while more. And he did. I wanted the both of us to stay on the couch forever but...we couldn't. We had our responsibilities, seeing how mentally and physically exhausted I must have been Dex got up, while I laid down. He covered me up with a blanket that he found while he untied my shoes for me and let them drop to the floor. After seeing that I was covered and comfortable Dex kissed me goodbye. He put his forehead against mine.

"I wish I could do something about this. But there are things that even the Masked Rider can't fix." Then after running his finger through my hair, he left. And I fell asleep.


	27. Chapter 27

Chapter 27

We all treated Zordon pretty cooly after that day. We would all address him as though he were a stranger, and in a way he was. Even Alpha treated him differently, and he has been Zordon's friend for a couple of thousands of years. He told me that Zordon wanted to talk to us about how he became a father but we weren't ready to hear it. Not yet anyway. I didn't return to the cemetery after that, other than feeling betrayed by Zordon, I felt betrayed by my own mother. _How could she keep something like this from me? Did she know that I was the yellow ranger? Did she know about my powers?_ Even though I've already started opening up to the others back when Kim and I had that fight...I felt that everything that I had told them was somehow a lie...I couldn't really explain it. I felt that...the grief that I had for my mother...was...misplaced. The grief that I had earlier was mostly focused on guilt that I had all of these powers, and yet I couldn't save her, that I had gone off to school before I could say my usual good-bye to her only to find out that on that morning, it would be the last time that I would see her alive. But now...the grief that I had was mostly centered on that I truly didn't know this woman whom I had called "mom" for the past 15 years. It was like she stopped being my mom after I found out that Zordon is my father. As for my step-dad... even though I had loved him in life and called him "dad"...it...it felt...I don't know... it was still the same feeling of grief but like mo—Anna's death, the woman whom I had called mom it felt..._I_ _don't know how to feel anymore!!_ _Blast it Zordon! Why did you have to tell me? Why couldn't you have said that you had no idea what Cyclopter was talking about?! Why did you have to tell the truth??_ I was angry at Zordon, more than angry. I didn't want to know any of this stuff, I was already barely dealing with the fact that I didn't get to the house on time, that it was at my hands that Aisha is dead, that everyone expected a lot of me. _And this all started because of that blasted bargain_. But mostly, I hated myself. For not being strong enough, fast enough or smart enough to refuse Zedd's offer in the first place. _But that's the reason I became a ranger in the first place, to beat Lord, to become more stronger than him, to be more powerful, but most of all to get my revenge. And I will get my revenge._

A few days later all of us had come to terms with what we knew. We talked about how we would approach Zordon. We would listen to him. We knew that he would only tell us the truth because that's what we expected from him. He wouldn't lie to us, not unless he wanted the Power Ranger Team to disband. I looked at each of my friends, Dex was also there. He wanted an apology from Zordon.

"Are we all ready?"asked Tommy. We all nodded. _The sooner we hear this, the better. _I thought to myself as I got up from the kitchen table and straighten my shoulders. The others stood up also. I put my hand in Dex's, he squeezed it and gave me a reassuring smile. Alpha was the first to teleport. The rest of us followed suit. We were soon in front of Zordon, he stared down at all of us. Ninjor was there also, Alpha had contacted him and told him everything, he was a good friend of ours and the creator of the Power Coins, he needed to know. It only felt right. I looked at Tommy and the others, Tommy had his arms crossed and was staring up at Zordon. Rocky was glaring at him, Adam was also staring at him. Kim was keeping her eyes on me, Billy, looked a bit uncomfortable. After glancing at Dex, who gave me a nod, I withdrew my hand from his and took a step forward. I looked up at him and uttered the one word that would have gotten me in trouble with my--Anna.

"Well?" Alpha was waiting also and at the same time was keeping himself busy by puttering around the Command Center and checking to see that everything worked. I couldn't blame him or Billy. How would you react if one of your oldest friends was keeping a secret from you and used to have a another life? Zordon cleared his throat, I'm pretty sure that he was wishing for an attack on Angel Grove around this time. He took a deep breath and after a moments silence, he began.

"A few years before the war with Rita Repulsa and when I was still living on Eltar, my men and I received a signal that an enemy ship was passing through our part of the galaxy, it had stolen goods and an identified subject on the ship. We investigated. That's when I first met Count Dregon. The battle was fierce, Dregon seemed unwilling to give up the object that he had stolen from a small planet called Earth. We managed to force ourselves to the heart of the ship where we found the cargo...and an Earthling. She told us that her name was Anna and that she had been kidnaped from her home planet. We offered to take her back to her home planet but she seemed a bit weak. After we had gotten the cargo and inflicted serious damage to Dregon's ship we flew back to Eltar. Anna stayed with our...doctor would be the correct term to use here, until she had gotten her strength back. She was intrigued by life on Eltar, never knowing that there were so many planets with life on them and asked me to tell her about the planets that I've been to and visited and she in turn told me about Earth. Soon we fell in love. We married and had a daughter. But soon problems arose, she wanted to stay with me but she missed her family on Earth, I wasn't sure if I would be able to leave my home, live on Earth with her and try to fit in. We would talk about the situation while watching you play and grow strong. As a present I presented you mother with a golden locket that she had had around her neck the first time we had met. Fixed and shining brightly. I polished it that night." Zordon had a faraway look on his face. Then he continued.

"Since you were half-eltarian, your powers weren't as strong but you did have habit of causing a bit of trouble and going off somewhere every time Anna and I sent you to your room as punishment." he looked down at me sternly.

"Then one night, the planet was attacked. It was completely unexpected. Everyone was called to the front lines to defend Eltar, the women also. The children were taken to the underground caves where they would be safe, Anna went with them. But somehow the enemy pushed through our defenses, they tracked down where the underground caves were, soon you and your mother were face to face with Count Dregon. He had tracked her down and was planning on killing me and taking her away. But as soon as he saw you he went into a rage and tried to kill you and you mother. But you were battled him with your powers, him, Cyclopter and Double-Face. I wish that I could have been there and see my nine year old year take on a full grown man, oh I was so proud. He unleashed insectivores and managed to steal our energy with a staff...Eltar was being destroyed before our eyes. I finally reached the both of you and shouted at your mother to take you and head back to Earth, as soon as the battle was over I would join her. Your mother took you and fled, but the escape ship that you had taken was attacked while flying through space. The both of you crashed landed on the outskirts of Angel Grove in a forest, unhurt and alive. But you...you had hit your head on something, you were unconscious. Your mother took you to a hospital. On Eltar we had finally managed to defeat Count Dregon and he had taken off, I wanted to go after him and make sure that he wasn't going after my family, more so I wanted to be with you and your mother. But my people needed me, I was torn. I had to stay on Eltar. Bury the dead, tend to the wounded. A lot of us were weakened by Count Dregon's staff and the strength of his men and insectivores. But we managed to pull ourselves together, I was frantic, I wanted to head to Earth and begin searching for my family, but Rita Repulsa came. We battled and by the time that war was over and I had been trapped in a dimensional time wrap, time had passed for the both of you. When I finally located you and your mother, imagine my shock to see that both of you were alright and that you were alive. I teleported Anna to the Command Center after sending Alpha away, both of us were glad to see each other...and yet...we couldn't hold each other. Your mother told me what had happened after both of you arrived on Earth.

How you were unconscious and when you woke up, how you didn't remember a thing. You had amnesia." I stared at Zordon. _Amnesia? _I didn't say anything. He continued.

"You didn't recognize your mother and she had to reintroduce you to everything, what your favorite foods where, what your favorite activities were...everything. But she ...she didn't tell you about me or who you really were. You were only twelve years old. Your mother saw this as a good sign, you didn't have to relive the events of what had happened on Eltar, you could grow up as a normal human. Your powers had not yet made themselves known to you and Anna was afraid that when you discovered them it would be traumatic for you. So she had me put your powers in the locket that I gave her, the same one that you have around your neck. I told her to keep it from you until you were ready. Also she kept your past secret from you, she told me that it would cause you too much confusion. You already had some sense that you...were different from the other children.

I watched you grow up, confident that Count Dregon would never find you or your mother, your mother remarried around this time...she had someone that would be there for her always. Even though I was unknown to you, I participated in your life, your pains, your sorrows. You were a strong one, getting into fights with your step father and doing what you thought was right. It was like you had never changed from that nine year old that laughed and played with the other Eltarian children. The locket was given to you when the both of us thought that you were ready." he paused, looking down at me. I turned to my friends, I had almost forgotten that they were there. Kim had tears running down her cheeks, Tommy was blinking his eyes. Adam was looking at the ground, Rocky had his hand over his mouth. Dex had an angry look on his face. I turned back to...my—Zordon.

"I wanted to meet you face to face, but Anna kept saying that we, especially you, weren't ready. So we waited and planned for us to meet. We were planning on meeting for the first time a few days after your fifteenth birthday party but things kept coming up. Then I decided that you would officially meet me as you father on the day you came home from school after you took that math test. But then your mother..." Zordon closed his eyes and I felt tears well up in my own.

"Amy, I want you to know that I tried to break through the force field that Zedd had around the house...but it was no use. Dregon must have combined his power also." His voice trailed off and he turned away as though ashamed with himself. I was looking at Zordon. I closed my eyes for a bit. I lowered my head and let out a sigh that was chocked with tears, a few fell down my cheek and dropped onto the Command Center floor.

"Did she know that I...?" It took a moment for Zordon to pull himself together.

"No, because I never told her. And it's a good thing I didn't. I worried enough for both of us." he had a small sad smile on his face.

"So now you know. I--I just wish we would have met under better circumstances." I nodded mutely, still too overwhelmed with emotion to say anything. Zordon sighed then turning to Dex, who jumped, Zordon apologized for saying all those things to him. To which Dex accepted. Zordon was only trying to protect me, his daughter.

All of us left a while later, I was tired and I wanted to sleep but I also wanted to apologize to mom and to Zordon. He smiled down at me and accepted and told me to go get some rest. After a few minutes of looking up at him and at each other, we left.


	28. Chapter 28

Chapter 28

As I sat on the front steps of my house, I stared up at the night sky and thought about what...Zordon told us. Little by little I turned over in my mind the thing that shocked me the most. _I'm half eltarian!_ It was...a complete blow away! But now at least I had answers to some of my questions that I have long asked myself. _Where did my power come from? Was I born with it? Why is it kept in this locket? Why did mom give it to me? How is it possible that I could control them so easily?_ D–zordon told me that he had taught me how to control them, by training me. It became an everyday part of my...life on Eltar, up until the attack. The fact that I could still control them after all this time and despite the amnesia must mean that a part of me still remembers. The only things I remember from Eltar was being with mom in a cave and a bad man coming into the cave. He wanted to hurt mom. I remember attacking him and a two faced guy and a guy with one eye. Then dad, yelling at me and mom to get to Earth, us climbing into a ship...then...greens trees flashing past the window...mom screaming... I closed my eyes. I don't really remember my time in the hospital._ Just me waking up to see a woman jump off a chair, hugging me and calling me by the name Amy._ _Me, staring at the woman and asking "Who's Amy?" The woman had gotten this freaked out look on her face and began to cry._ Another memory suddenly surfaced. _I was twelve, Mrs...uh I mean mom had gone off somewhere. Said that she would be back soon, I'm in the kitchen eating a jelly sandwich. I've gotten used to being called Amy now. I still have a bit of trouble referring to the woman whose house I'm living in as "mom" but I'm trying my hardest, dad has gone off to work "Mom" walks through the kitchen door and my mouth is full so I smile at her in greeting, she smiles back only half heartedly. She has that sad look in her eyes again._ _I watch her as she walks out of the kitchen. I finish my sandwich and take the dishes to the sink, then I walk up the stairs until I arrive to my "mom's" bedroom door. I poke my head inside and I see that she is sitting on her bed her face is in her hands and she is crying. But it's a different kind of crying, like something hurts inside of her that can never be fixed. I slowly walk over to her then I gently and hesitantly put my arms around her and hug her. After a moment she gathers me in her arms and hugs me back, I put my head on her chest and listen to her heart, then I close my eyes briefly. Suddenly I'm convinced that this woman, who calls me her daughter who has shown love toward me, IS my mom_. I don't exactly remember what happened after that. In fact I have very little memory of my life back when I was younger. I finger my locket and look at it.It twinkles in the light from the living room window. Amnesia..._No wonder I can't remember anything from my days on Eltar._ I wasn't at all sure that I would ever get my memories back, I also wasn't sure to be sad or relieved. _Both I guess. I have enough bad memories in my head to last me a lifetime._ I had gone to the cemetary earlier and had apologized to mom and wiped off the dirt that I had kicked from her gravestone. I promised my mom and my step-dad that I would still visit them, but not for a couple of Fridays.

"I need to get all this stuff straighten out." I said. I thought that they agreed with me. The front door opened and Kim poked her head out, I jumped when she called my name. Dropping the locket so that it fell back against my chest I turned to her.

"Sorry." she said, the phone was in her hand.

"Dex is on the phone." She looked ready to tell Dex that I wasn't up for talking but I got to my feet, limped toward her, and took the phone from her hand.

"Thanks." I said and limped up to my room, closing the door I sat on the bed and held the phone to my ear.

"Amy?"

"Hey Dex."

"You alright?"

"Truthfully, my head's still spinning and I am beyond tired. But other than that I'm okay."

"That's good, I think." There was a pause. "Do you want to talk.?"

"No, not really. I want to process what Zordon told us by myself first."

"Oh, okay. So maybe we'll talk later?"

"Sure. How did Tentomon get along with Combat Chopper and Magno by the way?"

"Great, the three of them really seemed to hit it off. In fact they even swapped stories on the strangeness of human behavior, a couple of times I was drawn into the conversation. Alpha seemed really surprised when he found out that other than the Masked Rider I'm also King Lexian's grandson."

"Hmm. I guess he was sent to Earth before you were born."

"Yeah he was, I spoke to Grandfather just a few minutes ago and he was glad that Alpha's alright. He wants to talk to him the next time Alpha comes to the cave."

"I'm glad the three of them had a good time." After several more minutes of talking, I cut my phone conversation with Dex short since I couldn't stop yawning. Dex told me that he let the other rangers know that they could talk to him if they wanted to. I smiled grateful. Yawning again, I bade Dex goodnight and hung up the phone. Slipping off my clothes and putting on my pj's I crawled underneath the covers and lay on my back, staring up at the ceiling. Finally I fell asleep.


	29. Chapter 29

Chapter 29

_Fighting before school, fighting after school, fighting during school...when will it end_? I thought to myself as I threw off a Tengu Warrior and managed to dodge Rito's sword as it whizzed past my head. Summoning my power I fired of a few rounds of a Power Blast at the monster, it was a cat monster and it was battling Rocky. I gave a shout to him in the nick of time. He leapt out of the way while the monster took the hits! It shrieked in pain and stumbled back a few steps. _Good, nothing like letting out your frustrations and all the stress that comes with being a ranger and a teenager and life out on a couple of monsters and aliens who are going to really regret trying to take over Earth on a daily basis. Its all very therapeutic to say the least. _I punched back a Tengu and narrowly dodged one of Goldar's fireball's. _Not that I wouldn't want to do this for the rest of my life, I mean even a ranger has to have some down time._ I gave a Tengu an uppercut to the chin and a round house kick to the head, I looked and saw that my sister was trying to defend herself against three Tengus! I leapt over the heads of my friends and enemies and came to land beside Kim, planting a high kick and bringing both of my fists on top of two Tengu Warriors, both of them stumbled back, with a wave of my hand I sent both of them flying. I turned back to Kim, she had just finished up with the third Tengu who had taken off. She turned toward me.

"Thanks."

"No prob. What are sisters for?" I said before flinging myself back into battle. I raced toward Goldar dodging fighting battling bodies, I drew out my daggers and began to attack him. Unfortunately he was expecting the attack and dodged nimbly to one side and struck back with a fireball which I deflected with my hand. I shrieked as he struck me full in the face with fireballs that came out of his eyes. I stumbled back and struggled to regain my balance. _I forgot about those._ I thought to myself as I charged at him, he raced at me, sword upraised and brought it down on me, I lifted up a daggers to counter the blow seriously thinking that I should really ask Zordon if I could have another weapon other than these daggers. _Okay, I know that they served Aisha and the ranger that came before her, but right now...compared to Goldar's sword and the power that he puts behind his attacks, I'm pretty sure that these things are going to be broken really soon. No offence Zordon or to you Aisha but I need something that will match Goldar's power._ I spun on one foot and lifted up my leg to send a round house kick to his head, but he was ready for it! He grabbed my foot and lifted me off the ground and with all of his strength slammed me into the ground! I let a yip as I managed to stop my being slammed into the ground a second time, by concentrating and sending a well aimed Power Blast toward Goldar's eyes. He counted with dodging it and lifting his sword, I had my daggers ready and met the blow. Both of our weapons clashed, what I didn't meet was his knee connecting with my back! I yelped and lost my concentration, I started to fall toward the ground, but Goldar had other ideas. Grabbing my ankle again he flipped me over so that I landed on my stomach, then stepping onto my back, he planted his sword into my right ankle and twisted it! I screamed in pain and tried to get him off of me but he had already placed a hand on my back and was sending what felt life fire up and down my body! I let out another shriek of pain as it raced up into my mind. It was inside!! I struggled to concentrate, to push away the pain that was coursing through my mind and my body but it was everywhere and it wouldn't budge!! _Make it stop!!_ _Please!!_ As if in answer to my prayers the pain that was in my body and mind as well as on my back was lifted off, I felt someone wretch the sword out of my ankle. _Thank heaven! Thank heaven!_ I thought to myself as my healing powers kicked in and I felt the warm glow spread throughout my body and mind, someone helped me to my feet. At first I though it was Adam but after my head cleared I stared in surprised to see...

"Dex!"

"Are you alright?"

"Yeah, what are you doing here?"

"Need you ask? I'm helping you fight."

"B–but this isn't your battle."

"Sure it is, look you fought by my side against Dregon so its only natural that I fight by _your_ side against Lord Zedd. Besides I figure that it's only fair that I fight in your war since you're fighting in mine. That and because I dragged you into my war in the first place." he said as he high kicked away a Tengu

"Gee, I don't know weather to be grateful or to call you an idiot." he laughed as the both of us raced at the cat monster sword and daggers blazing with power both of us striking the monster at the same time. _Time to finish this_. Dex and I both leapt!

"Rider Kick!

"Yellow Ranger Power Blast!" Both of the attacks hit home causing the monster to let out another scream, without warning both Dex and I leapt in two different directions while the other rangers got ready to deliver the finishing blow.

"Power Ranger Power Blast!!" All of them shouted together, each of their signature attacks sprang out of their hands and combined in a multi-colored blast, but the monster vanished before it could hit home. _Good riddance._ I thought to myself as I watched the aliens vanish. I breathed a sigh, glad that the fighting was over, at least for now. I was hungry and tired. After teleporting to the Command Center and receiving praise from Zordon, Dex decided to take me out to lunch. After lunch we walked around Angel Grove, and I kept wishing that it could stay peaceful like this forever and wishing that this war was already over, but wars are not won overnight or even in a single day. I let out a sigh as I swung Dex's hand. _Someday, it will be peaceful. Someday. _Dex had to return home to help out his mom around the house and with a soft good-bye kiss, he was gone.

A few days later Tommy was captured along with a girl named Katherine. I began to panic and thought of the possibility that he was being tortured but, thank god, Alpha managed to locate him and teleport him back to the Command Center before any real harm could befall him. But Tommy, realizing that he had left Katherine behind, told us that we had to go rescue her. I stared at him as if he had lost it. _Me? Go back to my master's palace where they might be waiting for us and kill all of the others and torture me until I begged to be put out of my misery?! No Way!_ The only time that I wanted to see Lord Zedd was when he was kneeling in front of me with one of my daggers sticking out of his chest and also see him reduced to dust. Still...we couldn't let an innocent person remain in the palace, who knows what Zedd might do. So we were about to take off for the palace when that cat monster attacked! I couldn't help but feel a twinge of guilty relief of the prospect of fighting a monster instead of going to a palace where my former master was. The cat monster was Godzilla size along with Goldar and Rito. Alpha said that he would find out where Katherine was and teleport her to a safe place while the rest off us took care of Goldar and the others. We wished Alpha good luck, morphed, called on the Zords, formed the Falcon MegaZord and along with Ninjor began to battle the 3 monsters. But three against two were not very good odds. _How about we even the playing field?_ I thought to myself as I began to concentrate. My Bear Zord was the chest and Goldar, Rito and the cat monster all noticed that the mouth was glowing a bright yellow. A ball of energy shot out of the mouth and shot toward all of them! They hit the ground, as the blast soared past them, Rito stood up.

"Hah! You missed!" he shouted. I had a grin on my face. _Wait for it._ The blast made a u-turn and slammed into him from behind! He gave a yell as he was thrown off his feet and fell face down on the dirt. _Gotcha!_ I thought to myself as we all charged at them. Rito leaped to his feet and received an uppercut from Ninjor, he stumbled back a few paces and Ninjor kept punching him over and over. The rest of us were faring much more better, I had given another blast to the cat monster and now we were head to head with Goldar. Tommy suggesting that we stop fooling around and help Alpha look for Katherine. Inwardly I cringed, but knowing that it was my duty to save innocents from the hands of Lord Zedd._ Well, it was fun while it lasted._ I thought to myself as I helped and added a Power Blast to the final attack from the MegaZord saber driving away Goldar and the other 2. Tommy happened to look down and see Katherine sitting underneath a tree and staring up at the MegaZord. How did she get there? After teleporting and returning to our civilian forms we ran toward her coming in the opposite direction of the battle.

"Katherine! You're alright!" Tommy said as soon as we all reached her. She stood up and smiled at us, I glanced at the Zords and Ninjor, both of them were gone. After seeing that Katherine was all right and after introducing ourselves we began to walk out of the park while she explained to us what had happened to her.

"I was in front of this witch in a dungeon and then I found myself here watching the Power Rangers battle those monsters. It was really scary." she finished.

"Well, I'm just glad that you're safe Katherine."said Tommy. She smiled at him.

"Please call me Kat." the others nodded, but me. _Being captured by Rita and escaping unscathed? That doesn't sound like the Rita that I know_. I studied Katherine for a few moments_. __How did she escape? Alpha couldn't have teleported her out of the palace, he would have told us something and yet he didn't. Did Rita just hold her captive just to try to lure us to the palace and into a trap? But then why did she appear in the park after a short time being Rita's prisoner?_ _Did someone save her? Did someone teleport her here? The only person that can teleport people, other than Zordon, is Lord Zedd_. My head spun with questions, just then I laughed to myself. _I'm getting paranoid, I'm getting suspicious of a girl that escaped Lord Zedd and Rita's unscathed_. But..._several times I tried to escape and I never got away unscathed._


	30. Chapter 30

Chapter 30

A few days later I was skating over at the ice rink at the Angel Grove Plaza, the rink was a bit full although most of the people were sitting on the bleachers watching the other people on the ice. There were parents with their kids, guiding them and catching them if it looked as if they would fall. I smiled to myself remembering how my older sister had tried to teach me how to skate. _Can't believe I was such a scaredy-cat back then._ I turned my thoughts back to a few days before when after debating whether or not I should ask Katherine a few questions...or to just let it be. _Ask Kat questions. _I went to look for her before school, reacting with surprise when I saw her in my English class talking to my sister, Kim. After asking Tommy about it, he had related me this information: Katherine and her dad had just moved to Angel Grove and she goes to Angel Grove High now. I felt uneasy about this, there was something about Katherine that I didn't trust. At lunch I wanted to know if the others were suspicious about Katherine like I was. I couldn't ask them because she was sitting at our table. I stopped in the doorway and stared for a few moments then gave myself a quick shake when I saw that Katherine was watching me. I strode up to the table._ Since when has a new student ever become popular in just a few hours?_ I stopped in front of them and faked a laugh.

"You guys got room for one more?" Tommy looked up at me.

"No, sorry Ames. Table's full." I felt a sinking feeling within my chest but shook it off remembering that for the first 15 years of my life...and not counting the lost 9 years on Eltar...that I had survived without friends, being content with eating by myself and walking home by myself. Still..._ Stop being so whiny, its only for one day and besides you have Tento, Zordon, Ninjor and Dex_. I put on a small smile and after shrugging my shoulders I walked to the bar, pulled out a stool; opened up my lunch bag and began to eat. I made up my mind to ask Katherine some questions about her time as Rita's prisoner. As I was limping back to my class a sudden thought suddenly struck me _What if she's working for Lord Zedd. _I frowned, worried._ That would be something to really worry about but...I've got no proof but my own suspicions and my experiences with Zedd and Rita_. I have to get some proof before I relate my suspicious to my friends.

After school, I was relieved when Tommy and the others stayed behind to work on homework, spare or just hang out. I shook my head._ We hang out all the time._ I thought as I looked around for Katherine. I caught up with her just as she was hitting the sidewalk. She turned as I called out to her.

"Hi! Amy right? Kim's sister?" _Kim?_

"Uh-hu, yeah." The smile on her face lingered for a moment longer. Her eyes light up for some reason._ Why did Kim tell her that? I bet she just blurted it out._ I made a mental note to talk to my sister about blurting out that information in front of strangers.

"I'm actually her adopted sister." Katherine nodded.

"Yeah, Kim told me." _Must remember to take Crane Zord for joy ride._

"Oh, really?" Katherine nodded. She turned her face away from me,_ here goes._ I thought after a few moments.

"So, you were captured by our resident witch Rita Repulsa?" She nodded.

"Yeah, it was really scary." She put on a look of fear and terror. I nodded sympathetically. She turned toward me.

"Have you ever been captured by Rita or Zedd?" I thought for a moment wondering if I should tell her the truth or lie. _I think it's better that I lie._

"No, I've never been captured." Then I stopped and thought of a better answer.

"Actually, I have but it was for a short while, the Power Rangers came and got me out of the dungeons."

"Wow." She said.

"You've met the Power Rangers? What are they like?"

"I only met them that one time. I was hoping that they could have stayed around a bit so I could thank them but they took off. Probably to fight some monsters. But they seemed pretty cool."

I turned to her.

"So, where did you end up?" she looked at me surprised.

"What?"

"Where did you end up in the palace! In the dungeons? In one of the Dark Dimensions? I heard that the gold dude mention that he was thinking of taking me there." I looked at her, she wouldn't meet my eyes.

"Um—I was in a room...where there was a whole bunch of fog. And meeting Rita...that's all I remember." My eyes narrowed a bit. _You were at the palace a pretty good while, enough time for Rita or Zedd to do something to you. But what? All I have is this bad feeling whenever I see you and that's not enough to convince my friends that you should be on the radar._ I straighten my face and changed the subject, chatting about our favorite flavors of ice cream and the movies that we've watched a thousand times and could practically re-enact all of our favorite scenes. After I had gone back to my house I lay on the couch and stared up at the ceiling. _Something's definitely not right with that girl_. I sat up suddenly._ Whenever people first meet me they would take notice immediately of my limp, and people would ask me what had happened. Katherine didn't ask about my limp._ As I got off the ice and handed in my skates with my shoes in one hand, I made my way to a bench to put them on. Then I went to the sidewalk where my bike was, securely in the bike rack. Getting on it I began to take off, then stopped for a minute, I still haven't been to the cemetery, I was still adjusting to the fact that Zordon was my father and that I was half-alien and that he had lied to us about Dregon._ And mom had known the entire time._ _I won't go to mom_._ Instead I'll go to Dex._ I turned my bike toward Leawood and began to pedal away.

_Dex has probably dealt with this stuff before, people who seem like friends only they turn out to be spies for the enemy or even traitors_. We never really discussed Edenio, not the present Edenio anyway. Dex found it too painful and he would always dream of the day when Edenio would be free and peaceful again. He wanted to take me up there and introduce me to his grandfather and his friends. I leaned my bike against the stoop of the house and knocked. A few moments later Molly opened the door.

"Hey Amy." she said smiling at me.

"Hey Molly, what's up?" I sais as I stepped onto the carpet. She shrugged her shoulders.

"Nothing much, Albee is going through my stuff ever since I mentioned to mom and dad that I've began dating this guy at school."

"You found someone! That's great." She grinned.

"Hey, it is nice. Coarse it would be nicer if my little brother hadn't been listening. I'm trying to convince Dad that I need to have a new lock on my door, Albee keeps going into my room and going through my stuff." I smiled.

"That's little brothers for you." She sighed.

"Yeah, I know. So you here to see Dex?" I nodded.

"Yea, is he around?"

"Yeah, he's in the garage with Patsy."

"Who's Patsy?"

"She's our next door neighbor, she's okay." I nodded, then made my way to the garage which was connected to the house. Reaching the door, I poked my head in and saw Dex with Patsy, they were laughing about something and she put her hand on his!! My eyes flared, boldly I stepped into the room and cleared my throat. They both looked up, I glared at Dex, he looked down and saw that his hand was being covered by Patsy's, and he snatched it away.

"Amy! Hey." He walked toward me and gave me a peck on the cheek. Patsy had blinked.

"Oh, Dex. I didn't know your cousin was coming." My blood boiled _Cousin??_ Instead through gritted teeth and in a semi-calm voice, I told Ms. Patsy who I was. A shocked look came on her face.

"Girlfriend? I didn't know that Dex had a girlfriend."

"We have been going out for a few months now." I snapped. Dex shuffled his feet and looked uncomfortable.

"For months?" Patsy said blinking at me in confusion. "Nothing was said about Dex having a girlfriend at school." I took a step toward her but Dex grabbed me and yanked me back. He was laughing nervously.

"Listen Patsy I'll see you at school tomorrow okay? And um..." he glanced back at me as he gave Patsy a shove out the door. "L–look I'll just see you tomorrow okay?" Patsy looked at me up and down, then without saying anything she nodded then left. I was still glaring at the back of her head as she made her way to the front door and walked out. Dex turned to me.

"She said she needed help with something?"

"With what? Being completely clueless that she might be stealing someone's boyfriend?"

"She wasn't even flirting with me?"

"Then why did you snatch your hand away from hers when I came in?"

"You just surprised me that's all, besides I didn't know that you were coming over?"

"I left a message with Molly!"

"Sorry about that Dex." We heard Molly's voice call from the kitchen. I blinked.

"Does sound travel easily in this house?"

"Actually it does." Albee poked his head into the room, his eyes lit up as he took in the scene.

"Albee go and do some homework or something." snapped Dex toward him. Albee ducked his head back in the living room. Dex closed the door and faced me.

"Amy, you know that I would never look at another girl besides I was helping Patsy with something, that's all it was. I swear." I looked at him for a few minutes.

"Sorry about that Dex, I guess I got a bit jealous, I mean you are my first boyfriend and all and other than worrying about losing you to Dregon, I'm more worried about losing you to another girl." Dex grinned as he wrapped his arms around me.

"Hey, there is no way that I would fall for another girl, besides you're a tough act to follow." I smiled at him and our lips met in a brief kiss.

"Ew! Gross!" we heard a voice from the doorway, it was open a crack and we could see a brown eye in the crack.

"Albee!" shouted Dex flinging open the door, Albee scampered away. Dex shook his head as I stepped out of the garage. He turned toward me.

"So, what's up?"

"I want to talk to you about something." I said in a low voice glancing toward the kitchen. Dex nodded and suggested that we go for a walk. We hit the sidewalk and after we had gotten a few feet from the house I told him about Katherine and my suspicions about her.

"And the other rangers don't have any suspicions?" He asked.

"Not that I know of, every time I try to tell them she shows up."

"Have you talked to Zordon? Maybe he could talk to them for you." I scowled. _Zordon and I only speak to each other when its necessary. _Dex glanced at me. He sighed.

"Amy...you can't stay mad at him forever. Sooner or later you're going to have to forgive him. People make mistakes and so can Zordon."

"Hmm." Was all I said.

"Can I ask you something?" he said, I looked at him.

"Even though you've been a ranger for a little more then a year it sounds as if you know Zedd and Rita pretty well." Inwardly I began to panic_. What should I tell him? I don't want to lie to him, but I don't want to tell the truth either. Why did he have to be observant??_

"If you don't want to talk about it, it's fine. You can tell me another time." he said noting my panicked expression. I sagged slightly with relief. _Thank you God! Thank you!_ I turned to him.

"So do you think I'm being paranoid or should I try and confirm my suspicions that there's something up with Katherine." Dex thought for a minute.

"I think you should watch her and try to let your friends know about what you think about her. If she turns out to be an enemy that Zedd sent down to spy on you guys, you can give them warning."

"Thanks Dex, I knew that I could count on you." He smiled.

"Anytime. Just call me if you think there's going to be any trouble okay?"

"Okay." We stopped in front of his house and said a very long goodbye before I got my bike, hopped onto it and rode away.


	31. Chapter 31

Chapter 31

Several days passed and I kept a close eye on Katherine, but not too close an eye, least she suspect something. A couple of times I even wished that I was still under the influence of Zedd's spell, then I could maybe know weather or not Katherine was under a spell or not and maybe identify whom she was working for. Several times the thought that maybe she was working with Goldar also crossed my mind. _Impossible sounding but it could be true. From what Goldar had told me he and Zed have worked beside each other for a pretty long time. Maybe he picked up some of Lord Zedd's spells._ But I dismissed the thought._ Goldar couldn't have taught himself any spells of Zedd's, m–Zed is pretty protective of his spells and incantations, besides what could Goldar use to cast his spells, his sword?_ So as not to look like I suspected Katherineof being up to something or of being a spy I spent time with her, going to the video arcade, to the amusement park, the roller rink, even the ice rink. I put on an act that I liked her and wanted to be her friend, she didn't suspect a thing. I didn't spend time with her every day though, that would seem too suspicious, at least to me it seemed like that. I noticed that Katherine would watch Kimberly a whole lot as she was practicing with her coach, Kimberly had a shot of participating at the Pan Global Games and I really excited for her. I hope that she would be in it. And I told her that if she had to miss any battles because of her training I would fill in her spot.

"I'm not sure why but I've always dreamed of fighting in a battle against impossible odds." I joked, she smiled. She thanked me but said that she would be present if any battles arose. I frowned, I didn't want her to exert herself too much. It took a lot of energy to defend the Earth from the forces of evil on a daily basis and quite frankly I was getting sick of it. Even though a part of me wanted to teleport to the palace, confront Lord Zed and destroy him and end this war, I knew that common sense told me that it wasn't time. And grudgingly I agreed, I wasn't at all yet strong enough to take on Lord Zed by myself and despite that I _have_ gotten stronger and that I was prepared to face Lord Zed on my own, there...there were times when I still felt like that scared and abused 15 year old who was terrified of her master and bringing down his wrath. It was true that I was still terrified of him but the thing that really freaked me out was...was I really going to be that strong to take down Lord Zed all by myself? Dex reassured me that I will be, I just have to have faith in myself, besides even super heroes doubt themselves of time to time.

"But that only makes us stronger."

A few days later we were all at the lake. The boys and Kim were out on boats paddling though the water. Rocky was trying to convince Tommy to ram Kim's boat over. I declined going into a boat, it just that I wasn't scared, I had a job to do. I spread out my towel and lay down on it, occasionally peeking over my sunglasses to look over at Katherine who was watching the others. The sun felt nice and warm on my face. Despite myself I began to remember all those times when I was in Zedd's palace shivering from fright and from the ice coldness that seemed to surround every inch of the palace, it was in all the rooms. Even when I would be getting beatings or whippings the cold would be there, it felt like it was sapping away my strength so that I couldn't stop Goldar's fists coming down on me again and again. When I would finally get home the cold would still be with me, even after I took a hot bath, despite the pain that the hot water would bring to my back and bruises which my family couldn't see, and after I put on a dozen sweaters it was still there. It only disappeared after Zed removed the spell. I haven't felt that horrible coldness since. _And I pray to God that I never will. _I sat up, feeling something. Looking around I saw Katherine disappear into the trees, jumping to my feet and removing my sunglasses and putting on my normal glasses I took off after her. Ducking behind several trees so as not to be seen, we came to a small clearing, not far from the picnic area. Katherine stopped and a woman appeared in front of her. Ducking behind a tree that was slightly more closer to the clearing I peered and let out a gasp. I clamped my hand over my mouth, praying that they didn't hear me. I chanced a peek and saw with relief that they didn't hear me. Standing in front of Katherine was Rita Repulsa! I heard Katherine address her as Empress, my hand tightened on the bark of the tree, heart pounding._ I knew it! She is a spy!_ I listened to their conversation. Katherine had been keeping a close eye on Kim and for a bad reason, she was planning on stealing her Power Coin!_ Not if I can help it! _I thought to myself. _Anyone who tries to hurt my sister has to go through me first!_

"Empress, I've had no problem in fooling the other rangers into thinking that I am a friend, except for one ranger, I have already mentioned this before. The yellow ranger, Amy Karmer, has asked questions about my capture, asking me to detail what went on in the palace. She has become a problem."

"Not to worry, we will soon have that problem fixed." Rita was smiling! My blood froze! I heard breathing behind me, without turning I ducked low, then sticking out my foot in a low kick, Goldar lost his balance and fell. My first thought was to show Katherine just how angry I was at her for betraying my sister's and my friends trust. Flying at her she didn't have time to dodge my punch, she went down, preforming a round house kick toward Rita she vanished before it made contact. I morphed into a puddle and sped toward the picnic tables where we had left all of our stuff, including our Power Coins!_ Almost there!_ I was a 2 feet from it! I materialized and ran toward it my hand out stretched, ready to grab my sister's coin, tell my friends what I had seen and heard. I let out a scream as electricity engulfed my entire body and at the same time I saw to my horror Tengu Warriors! They were fighting my friends. Kim!_ I've got to warn her!_ I opened my mouth but instead of a shout of warning a scream of pain erupted. I felt something burn on my back and I dropped to the ground onto my knees then onto my stomach. Despite the pain that was crawling through my body I stretched out my arm and pulled myself toward the table! _Not again! Not again! First mom then..._ Goldar had appeared and stepped on my arm.

"You are a tough one you know that? It'll be a pleasure to kill you right here and now. But first Zed has granted me that I have a little fun with you." My locket was glowing I concentrated trying to summon energy for a Power Blast, but Goldar pressed his hand on my back and released that unbearable pain! Goldar laughed as I screamed. I felt something cold wrap around my wrists and ankles, looking at my wrists I saw shackles! I tried to shout for my friends but Goldar had already picked me up and flung me over his shoulder. The pain thankfully stopped and I was able to think but before I could even focus my thoughts on kicking Goldar's butt, An icy coldness swept over me as the bright and warm sun vanished from my view only to be replaced by darkness. I let a shriek as I was flung to the floor near the feet of Lord Zed. He stared down at me I looked up at him, Katherine was beside him. I felt anger rise within me but before I could tell the both of them off and tell them where they should go I was kicked hard in the stomach, then in the mouth. I coughed and spat out blood as I was kicked in the mouth again. Even though I was in shackles I struggled to get to my feet, to defend myself. I was suddenly filled with anger, anger towards me, I did not want to be treated like this! I had vowed that Goldar nor Lord Zed would ever touch me or abuse me anymore. And now look at me, on the ground, in shackles being beaten to a pulp, while Zed watched and laughed at my feeble attempts to try to get up, to use my powers. They didn't work here, there was too much evil here, too much pain and suffering, I could never explain it but I felt like a small child whenever I came here. Small, weak, helpless and powerless. I couldn't even summon enough power to stop Goldar from whipping me or Rito from beating me. All those times...I wished for death...to put an end to my suffering...but Zed wouldn't give me that. And now those thoughts crossed my mind once again. But I shoved them away with all of my might, instead focusing on all the people that I would let down and leaving my friends without a yellow ranger again. But no matter how hard I tried to focus, to summon my powers, Goldar would send the pain through my body again, making me scream and wipe all thoughts of concentration from my mind. My head spun with pain, Lord Zed was pointing his staff at me and a red beam shot out from it, engulfing me, it seemed to burn my bones and my mind so that I howled in pain. _Don't beg for death! Don't beg for death! Don't beg for death! _I clenched my teeth tightly refusing to beg, unwilling to give them that satisfaction. _I will never give them that. I will not beg for death just so they can hear me!_ Because of the fact that I wouldn't beg they upped the dosage.


	32. Chapter 32

Chapter 32

I was dumped in a cage, I lay there for a moment not sure if I could move at all, thinking that this was all a bad dream. That Kim would wake me up by yanking the covers off of me and dragging me of the bed by one ankle while I yelled at her and she laughed. I cracked my eyes open, and saw only darkness. I struggled to sit up but after a few failed attempts I lay on the ground. I was tired, tired from all that screaming that I did. After a while I managed to push myself up on my hands and knees, inch by painful inch I made my way to the cot that was 2 feet away from me. But in the state that I was in, it felt like 2 miles. Heaving myself onto the cot I flopped onto it and breathed a sigh. I closed my eyes briefly, wishing that I had my locket with me so that I could heal my body. But it had been taken from me, my guess that it was in Zedd's throne room. After resting for a bit, the pain subsided and I was able to sit up a bit and take in my surrounds. Along some parts of the walls, there were torches, two to each wall. The light that they threw was not very bright just enough so that the place was lighted so that you could see where you were going. I looked around my cage. The cage was about 7 ft long, with just enough room for 2 or more people, but only one cot. I've never been in a cage before even when I was a slave Zedd never threw me in the dungeons, in fact all they did was tie me up and hang me from a hook in the ceiling and whip me and just for laughs Goldar and Rito would take turns beating me. Other that Zedd's throne room, where I would usually be summoned and punished I never really given any thought to exploring the rest of the palace. I was too afraid of going into rooms because there was a good chance that I would be punished. _The punishments that I got for failing to kill Aishia were quite enough for me thank you._ I opened one eye and looked around my cage and beyond it, there was a light at the end of the tunnel. _That must be the way out. _I opened both eyes and stared up at the ceiling of the cage, I breathed a sigh and thought miserably of my sister and how I failed to protect her, to save her. _I'm no ranger. What kind of ranger is incapable of saving her mother and her sister from the forces of evil?_ _I was mere 2 feet from the power cions! I should've grabbed them the first chance I got instead of punching Katherine._ I heard footsteps, raising my head I saw that it was Lord Zedd, accompanied by Katherine, and Goldar. In his hand, was a set of keys, picking out one Goldar inserted the key into the key hole of my cage and unlocked the door, Lord Zedd stepped in. I mildly thought whether or not if one of the keys was for my shackles. He stood in front of me, I stared at him.  
"It's been a while Amy, seen we've last met. I'm rather surprised that we captured you so easily. I was hoping for more of a challenge, more of a fight from you."  
"Release me from these shackles and I'll give you a fight." I snarled at him struggling to stand up but the shackles prevented me from beating the daylights out of him and Katherine as she smiled at me.  
"Hmm, well I see that living with Kimberly has done wonders for your personality and your looks." He ran a hand through my hair, I moved my head away and glared at him.  
"Don't touch me!" He chuckled.  
"Indeed."  
"She's also very perspective Master." spoke up Katherine her upper lip curled up in a sneer.  
"I hadn't counted on her suspecting me that I was working against her friends." Zedd waved his hand lazily in the air."Never you mind. Her capture and her performance earlier excuses you for your mistake Katherine." Katherine smiled pleasantly and bowed her head.  
"Now, where was I? Oh, yes. I have to commend the other rangers for training you so well, you even defeated Goldar once or twice and all on your own too. Such bravery and skill must be rewarded. Goldar here will keep you company until you've had enough rewards to last you." He said as he stepped out of the cage. Goldar stepped in and silently unsheathed his sword, a malicious grin on his face.  
"Sadly," said Zedd as he closed the cage door and took a step back.  
"I would give you your rewards myself but I have other business to attend to. Besides it seems fair, you, a mere human, have succeeded where so many of my monsters have failed. You see it was Goldar's dream to strike down a ranger, so as punishment for taking away Goldar's dream, you will punished. Until then, enjoy yourself Goldar." He and Katherine walked away while behind them sounds of yelps and screams of pain echoed throughout the dungeon.

As I lay there covered in blood, I closed my eyes and began to weep. Goldar, who was standing over me, wiped his sword of blood and with one last satisfied nod he stepped out of the cage and closed the door. I heard the clink as it was locked._ Thank god! Thank god its over!_ I breathed a shaky sigh and struggled to my feet, I swayed and feel face first onto the cot. It took a while for me to turn myself around and scoot myself back so that I leaned against the cage wall. I leaned my head back I looked down at my clothes, they were ripped and torn but enough had been left to cover my body._ Heh, if I had known that I was going to be captured I would have packed a pair of jeans and a sweater. _I thought as I tore off a piece of my tank top and began to try to wipe up the blood on my body. Throughout the beating Goldar hadn't said a word about Kimberly's state. Nor had my jail holders, and I wasn't about to ask them. I shivered and wrapped my arms around myself. _Its so cold in here._ Another thing that they haven't done was feed me. I had eaten an early breakfast, that seemed years from now. I began to shiver, my teeth chattering. I blew on my hands, struggling to get a little warmth into my body. A memory suddenly surfaced.

_I was 13 and mom had told me to take a sweater to school. It was cloudy and the wind felt cold whenever it blew but dad was sure that it would blow over and that the sun would soon warm Angel Grove. Still mom insisted that I take a sweater, she folded it and put it in my backpack and told me to take it out and put it on if I was feeling cold. She dropped me off at school and gave me a wave as she drove off to work. I ran into the school. School was near ending and I was getting cold, I was waiting for mom outside. __I took off my pack back and looked inside and gasped. My sweater! Its gone! Someone must have taken it!!_ _I try to remember if there was anyone near my backpack through out the school day but as far as I can tell no one has. I must have dropped it somewhere and forgotten it. I look up at the sky. The clouds were back and the wind was blowing hard and cold_, _I shiver as I scan the ground, searching in vain for my sweater, but I don't see it. I stay where I am hoping that mom will appear any moment and pick me up. I begin to jump up and down trying to warm myself, the wind is blowing more harder now and my teeth are chattering. Ten minutes pass, then a horn honks. I look up. Its mom! I run to her car and gratefully clamber inside, she has the heater on, and it warms me up slightly. When we get home she makes me hot chocolate and helps me into a sweater since I'm shivering so badly. Then she rubs my arms to warm me up and soon I stop shivering as she hugs me. I tell her about the sweater and she tells me that we'll look for it in the morning._

Tears are falling down my cheeks as the memory fades, that was one my warmest and fondest memories of my mother._ How could I have forgotten all that she's done for me? I pushed her away when I found out that she's been lying to me. I only thought of her as a woman that has never been completely truthful with me who, for the past several years, has hidden so much of my life from me. I've completely forgotten who she was, but now she will be from now on and forever will be, my mother. _I let out a sob. _I'm sorry mom._ I thought as I curled into a ball and began to cry. _I'm finally mourning for you, even through this isn't the place that I would like to mourn for you...I can't hold it back, not anymore._


	33. Chapter 33

Chapter 33

**I was on a roll, so I began writing this right after I finished with Chapter 32.**

I lost track of time while in my cage, not sure whether days or weeks passed, could have been that a mere few hours. But at least I had some company, if you could call Tengu Warriors who were outside my cage cackling and discussing my up coming death, company. Thankfully, from the beatings and the pain that would coarse through me every time Goldar or Lord Zedd came into my cage, I had a pretty good idea that my friends were somehow safe and irritating Lord Zedd more and more. I still had no idea what was happening to my sister, whether or not she was alright, whether or not she was alive. What was happening to her now that her power coin was in the hands of Lord Zedd. I thought of Dex and wondered if he had heard of my capture, wondering if he had told my friends about my suspicions of Katherine. Were they going to believe him? Were they, right now, trying to figure out a way to get me out of here?_ I pray to god they are_. I thought of Dex, his warm touch, his kisses, how he made feel all warm inside whenever I was with him even during battle. _I know that I'll see him again, I know that I'll get out of here. I just have to figure out a way to escape._ Suddenly I heard the sounds of a girl screaming._ Oh no. Who have they captured this time? _Imagine my shock and surprise when Rito neared my cage dragging Katherine!! She was struggling and tried to hit him a couple of times but he managed to give her a good hard slap across the face. He got the cage door open and shoved her in. She stumbled but then managed to righten herself she spun around and began to yell at him, he only laughed at her and walked away. I stared at her for a few minutes, images of her laughing down at me while I screamed and her sneering and gleeful look on her face as Zedd praised her for a job well done ran through my mind. My blood began to boil, anger rose up within me, she turned toward me.  
"Amy! I--." But before she could put in another word I had leapt! All thoughts of trying to escape forgotten, even the pain that my body was still suffering was gone. I leapt on top of her, we both fell onto the ground, my hands were wrapped around her throat, her hands were on my wrists she was trying to get me to let go. But I wouldn't. I will never let go, she has to pay! Her eyes were wide with fright and terror as she looked at my face.  
"I'm going to kill you. They trusted you, my friends, my sister, and you betrayed them." I snarled in a voice that to my own ears I have never heard before. My hands tighten more around her throat, Katherine was fighting to breath, she kept trying to fight me but to no avail. I didn't even feel her slaps on my face."Nobody hurts my sister and gets away with it." I snarled.  
"Ki--kimberly—is alive—she's—alright." Katherine choked out. But I didn't release my hold on her throat. _Lies! All lies! _Images of Kimberly lying in the Command Center dying flew through my mind. I felt tears well up in my eyes!_ I should have told you, I should have told all of you then none of this would be happening. _I continued to keep my choke hold on Katherine.  
"I--I'm--not–working--for--Zedd--anymore." She choked out.  
"I--fought--off--R--rita's—spell." I looked down at her and in the back of my mind I could hear someone laughing. It took me a while to realize that the laughter wasn't coming from inside my mind, it was coming from outside of the cage! Snapping my head up, I saw Lord Zedd, he was the one that was laughing! In my surprise I released Katherine, she scrambled from underneath me and away from me gasping and coughing for breath.  
"Very entertaining you two, although I did wish that it had continued. So sorry, please continue." I stared from Lord Zedd to Katherine and back again, the anger that had given me strength was trickling away to be replaced by surprise. I got to my feet.  
"You wanted me to kill her." I said. He nodded.  
"Smart. Yes, I did want you to kill her, that way I could spend all my free time dealing with you, but sadly you didn't. I was hoping that with your duty to protect and avenge your sister and your growing anger and mistrust toward Katherine here, you would be able to do that." The more that I looked at Lord Zedd, the more confused I felt. _He's missing something._  
"Then its true isn't it? Katherine is no longer underneath the spell that was controlling her." He nodded letting out a cackle.  
"Very good, though I wish that you had figured this out a lot later than sooner." He shrugged his shoulders as if saying "Oh well." Katherine was looking at me up and down, a look of horror on her face.  
"Why are you doing this? There's something more to this other than me finding out that Katherine here was a spy working for you."  
"As a matter of fact, there is, this is punishment for you, you for betraying me and joining up with them and for the rangers for taking you in an making you into one of them. This would have been the first punishment but you seeing your mother dead didn't seem to be enough to call it...pain worthy."  
"YOU KILLED MY PARENTS AS A PUNISHMENT??"  
"Yes. But after much thinking and watching, it looked as if you weren't in enough agony. So I began to plan, what would be the best way to cause you the most pain? Pain that you, unwittingly brought upon yourself. Then I saw how you and Kimberly were with each other, you two seemed like sisters, very much like sisters. I thought that since I succeeded in separating you from your three biological sisters then I could separate you from your adopted sister. So my wife enlisted the help of Katherine here, she's the one that did most of the work, but you...you supplied the pain. The pain that this was an exact repeat of that day that your mother died."  
"Stop it!"  
"If only you had followed your instincts and stayed home that day, then your mother would still be alive. You should have told Kimberly about your suspicions of Katherine, if you did then Kimberly wouldn't be in the state that she is now, you wouldn't be here in this cold and dark place. In both instances you were mere feet from saving the people that you loved, the people whom you would die for to protect."  
"Stop it!"  
"And yet your mother did die, your sister's life energy is slowly ebbing away. Soon she will be joining the yellow ranger that you replaced, but in doing so the ranger team will be back to square one, but this time instead of not knowing who to blame, the other rangers will blame you."  
"They will not!"  
"They won't see it that way, instead they will blame you for Kimberly's death, they will blame you for leaving the Power Rangers one ranger short again, then they will strip you of your powers and they will kick you off the team. And when you're all alone and friendless I'll come for you, You will have given up the will to live and in doing so, you will have given up the will to fight. The Power Rangers will be destroyed and so will the Earth, and it'll be all ...your...fault!" I had covered my ears and shut my eyes, refusing to listening but I couldn't stop the images that were running through my mind. Kimberly dead, the others blaming me, Dex leaving me, being stripped of my powers, being all alone, Zedd coming and me falling at his feet and begging him to kill me.  
"NO!!" I screamed angrily. He seemed taken aback by the strength in my voice.  
"My sister will not die! I'll get out of here some how and when I get Kimberly's coin back and she becomes the Pink Ranger again both of us will not rest until you have paid for what you have done Zedd."  
"Brave words, little one, but can you keep that promise?"  
"Don't worry, I will. I won't rest until I have your head on a stick!"  
"Not if I can accomplish that feat first." He snapped, then he turned on his heel and walked away.

After taking a couple of deep breaths, I turned to Katherine. She was still rubbing at her throat and staring at me. I took a deep breath and stepped toward her.

"Kimberly, is she alright?" Katherine stand up and looked at me.

"Yes, she alright. Don't worry, plus her life isn't ebbing away." I breathed a sigh. _Thank god!_

"Look I—."

"Later Katherine, first of all we have to figure out a way to get out of here. Do you know where Zedd is keeping the Power Cions and my locket?" She nodded.

"In the throne room." _Typical_.

"Okay, what's going on down on Earth?" She hesitated for a moment as though afraid that I would attack again if she told me what she had done. She took a deep breath and told me about taking the Falcon Zord from Tommy, capturing Ninjor and Kimberly being in the hospital after she fell of the balance beam while she was practicing. My eyes widen.

"But she's okay." yelped Katherine backing away from me when she saw the look on my face.

"I got to her in time, she's awake. I told her everything about who I was working for and that I was underneath a spell. Theother rangers seemed to understand." I stared at her. _She knew who we were the entire time!!_ I breathed a sigh. _Should have know that Lord Zedd was lying._

"Is that all?" She nodded.

"Yeah, unless something else has happened that we know nothing about." I nodded absently, in my mind I was trying to remember the way to Zedd's throne room. But I had been in too much pain to remember the route and before I would be teleported to him for my punishments or assignments.

"Katherine, you'll have to lead the way to Zedd's throne room when we get the chance, okay?" She nodded. She looked at me for a minute as I sat back down onto the cot.

"H–how did you that I was-?"

"Working for Zedd or Rita? Ha! 2 years ago I was in your shoes, only I had made a deal with Zedd that if I preformed a certain job for him he would spare my family. I received a lot of punishments if I didn't do the job right. And I've got the scars to prove it."

"So you know what they're really like."

"You bet your sweet dollar I do. We've gotta get out of here before they figure out that they no longer have any use for us." At that exact moment Rito came in, and he was moving his head around as if he had a crick. After watching him for a few moments Katherine got an idea. After persuading Rito that she could get rid of that crick, he agreed and sat with his back to her. I watched with some disgust as she placed her hands on the back of his neck and began to massage it, a few minutes later his head dropped forward and he began to snore. Silently Katherine took the keys from around his belt and unlocked my shackles, helped me up, unlocked the cage door and opened it. Amazingly it didn't make a sound as it swung open. _Hmm, they must oil the doors._ After checking to make sure that I could walk on my own, Katherine and I set off at a brisk pace heading toward the throne room. We didn't met anyone along the way which left me with an uneasy feeling, I kept my eyes and ears open and kept glancing over my shoulder. Soon we came to the throne room. Slowing down and pressing our backs to the wall on one side to the room's door we peered inside. We saw Zedd on the throne, his head was on his chest and he was snoring! Katherine and I glanced at each other.

"I wonder what Rita sees in him." whispered Katherine. I giggled, then scanned around for the Coins and Ninjor, I spotted a box that was glowing first pink then yellow, and beside it was a blue jar. _That must be where Ninjor and the coins are._ They were on a small table right next to Zedd's throne. I silently pointed to them out to Katherine she nodded, then both of us crept into the throne room.


	34. Chapter 34

Chapter 34

Keeping one eye on Zedd and one eye on the table that held the power cions and Ninjor, Katherine and I sneaked up to the table._ I don't see my locket here_. My eyes roamed over the table and stopped at the box, the yellow light appeared to be more brighter than the pink light. _It must be inside!_ I took a deep breath then placed both hands on the box and lifted it, I glanced over at Katherine, she had the jar underneath one arm. I chanced a glance at Zedd, he was still snoring away. I let out a silent sigh then with a signal to Katherine we were about to sneak away when a hand grabbed my wrist.  
"Did you honestly think that I would let the both of you get away so easily?" snarled Zedd. Katherine let out a shriek as Goldar appeared just behind her and grabbed her, Zedd yanked me toward him and wrapped on arm around me, I was mere inches from his face. I shrank back in terror then I leaned my head back and flung it forward as hard as I could! Our heads met. _BAM! _Zedd stumbled back and fell into his throne, clutching his head. I spun and dove for Goldar who was towering over Katherine. I gave out a yell as I preformed a low kick that knocked him off of his feet.  
"Katherine run! Run!" I shouted as I grabbed her and both of us sprinted for the door, we were met by Tengus, they were everywhere.  
_This whole thing was a trap!_ I thought as I punched and kicked away Tengu after Tengu, Goldar and Rito, now awake, blasted Katherine and I into the wall. The box and the jar flew from our hands and fell to the floor, a Tengu scooped in up with a cackle. All of them converged on us, I kicked, punched and clawed. Katherine was struggling to pull herself free.  
"Kill Katherine. Leave Amy to Goldar and Rito. Both of them deserve to have a little fun with her. When you're through, then I will have a turn."  
"Amy!" shouted Katherine as she was being dragged away. I fought even more harder to get to her. It was strange, a few minutes ago I would have gladly killed her myself. But now here I am fighting my hardest to protect and save her. I wasn't sure what to think of her, I still partially thought of her as an enemy but now she was an ally, who helped me escape from the dungeon, freed me and helped me out in getting the Power Coins and Ninjor back. _I am in her debt, and if I can save her that debt will be fulfilled and then I will no longer owe her anything._ I leapt in front of her and punched away the Tengu Warriors that were dragging her away. I turned toward her.  
"Don't think this changes anything between us, I'm still angry with you that you brought all of this on my friends and me." I snapped at her as I kicked away Goldar, Rito was to my right, I was prepared to punch him when his sword flashed out! I screamed as blood flew from my arm, I clutched it and was kicked in the face. I stumbled and several Tengus dragged me to the floor, I heard Katherine shout. I was dragged to my feet, a Tengu grabbed me by my hair and yanked my head back, out of the corner of my eye I saw that Tengus were holding Katherine also.  
"Who wants human blood to drink?" cackled Zedd as Goldar neared Katherine with his sword. She cried out and tried to break free.  
"No!" I shouted, without warning a blue mass appeared and began to drive back the Tengu Warriors and the others. I instantly recognized it. It was Masked Rider! _Dex!_ The mass flew through the air and drove away Goldar and Rito who swiped at him with their swords yelling and cursing. The Tengu that was holding onto the box and the jar was suddenly on the on the ground, the possessions gone. The mass drove back Lord Zedd while he yelled and howled in rage and surprise.  
"Hang on you two!" shouted Dex, as the Tengus that were holding us were forced back. Katherine uttered a small scream as she and I were engulfed by the blue mass and sped away. I heard Lord Zedd yelling in rage.

I'm not sure how we made it back to the Command Center but the next thing I knew I was being surrounded by my friends, as soon as I saw them and we had materialized I fell to my kness. Tommy and the others were helping me to my feet and steering me toward the couch.  
"Oh my god Amy, you're bleeding!"  
"Look at her lips, they're all blue!"  
"Billy, get a blanket. Adam, get the medical kit."  
"Kat are you alright?"  
"Yes, I'm okay." I was vaguely aware of Katherine showing the box to my friends and releasing Ninjor. I saw the Masked Rider looking at me, I looked at him and a silent message passed between us, then without another word he left._ I wish he could have stayed_. I thought to myself as I was wrapped in a warm blanket and someone began to clean up my wounds. My head was swimming, everything felt fuzzy and distorted. Something was pressed into my hand, I looked down at it. It was a golden locket._ Ooohhh, pretty._  
"Short stuff try to heal yourself." someone said. I was aware of the room spinning then the sensation of falling.  
"Someone catch her!" Then the world went dark.

"See ya later sis." I said to Kimberly at the airport I hugged her tightly.

"See ya. Listen...are you sure that you're okay with all of this?" She had a worried look in her eyes. But I only smiled at her.

"Yeah, I mean it might take some getting used to but it should be alright." After nodding and hugging me again, she said that she would call as me after she arrived in Florida. And that she'll e-mail me everyday.

"It doesn't have to be every day, but often would be nice." She smiled then she moved away to say goodbye to the others. Someone put an arm around my shoulders, without looking I knew that it was Dex. I got his hand and squeezed, he squeezed back. After I had woken up from my little fainting spell, I had found Dex, who had returned to the Command Center. He was all alone, Zordon had sent the others home so they can get some rest with a promise to Kimberly and the others that, when I would wake, Zordon would call them. When I had seen Dex, standing with his back to me with a worried expression on his face, for a few moments I had been confused. _Why was Dex here? Why did my body hurt? And why was I in bandages? _Then it had all come rushing back to me. I had screamed out his name and began to cry as he spun and threw his arms around me and hugged me tightly.

"Just hold me and don't let me go!" I begged as tears fell onto his shirt, Dex covered me in kisses and hugged and caresses, it took me a while to realize that he was crying also.

"Oh god I thought for sure that I had lost you. When Chopper told me that he received a message from Alpha that you had been kidnaped, I raced right over. I told them about your suspicions about Katherine, they had disbelief on there faces, but to me it didn't matter whether or not she was a alien from another planet. I–I just wanted to get you back, so I was able to teleport myself to Zedd's palace, with a little help from Zordon, I managed to reach you and Katherine. And thank god I arrived in time...if I had been a few minutes late..." Dex hugged me tighter.

"Amy, I'm glad your safe and I'm glad that Kimberly's Power Coin is in the hands of its rightful owner again." said Zordon. I smiled up at him.

"Thanks Zordon." I said. He frowned down at me then turned away as Dex told me everything that had happened while I had been captured. Alpha, who was beside Dex, began to try and push him out of the way.

"Oh, sorry Alpha." Dex said as he stepped aside so that Alpha could hug me and expressed relief that I was alright. I hugged him back and thanked him for alerting Dex.

"If you hadn't..." tears welled up in my eyes as I thought about what Goldar and Rito would have done to me.

"Don't think about that, you're safe now, they can't hurt you anymore okay?" Dex said. I nodded then began to blush furiously when my stomach rumbled. Dex smiled then had Alpha teleport up some food for me and while I ate. The others, minus Katherine(much to my relief) came and began to say how glad they were that I was alright and that I was alive. Tommy decided to wait until I had completely rested before telling me about everything that had happened. But I told him to tell me now, Zedd was bound to launch an major attack on us after that close call. Tommy took a deep breath and told me about losing the Zords to Lord Zedd, how they nearly became slaves to Zedd and Rita, but how they turned things around thanks to Billy. He had reconfigured the new Zords, the Shogun Zords, so that they worked for us and not for Lord Zedd_,_ hearing this, I was glad but I knew that I would miss my Bear Zord. I knew that they had more to tell but they decided to put it off until I felt better. A day later, they had told me that Kim was going to Florida to become a famous gymnast, I was shocked , but it turned into happiness. My sister was going to fulfill her dream, she had told me about it long ago and I was happy for her. I got another shock when they told me who the person was that was going to replace Kimberly, Katherine! I wasn't sure how to feel about this, but I put on a brave face for the benefit of my friends. Now here we were at the airport saying good bye to Kimberly Hart our best friend and my sister. I was crying as Kimberly hugged me one last time as the call for her flight was called over the intercom, and she dashed into the crowd that was boarding the plane.

All of us waved as the plane took off. _Watch over her Aisha._ I thought to myself as the plane grew smaller and smaller and finally flew out of sight. 


	35. Chapter 35

Chapter 35

It still came as a shock to me that Kimberly would no longer be fighting beside me, would no longer join me in teasing and making fun of Rocky, would no longer argue with me about the amount of make up I should wear whenever I went out on dates with Dex. But...I had to accept it, besides she was going on with her life fulfilling her dream and I was glad. After everything that she's been through she deserved some peace and quiet. _I hope she enjoys it and doesn't forget us._ But the thing that really shocked me was _who_ Kimberly gave her Power Coin to, Katherine. Of all people! Why her?! Why? After everything that she's done to my friends after everything that she's done to me, Kimberly...forgives her and makes her the new Pink Ranger and the others agree with her and welcomed her with open arms!! OPEN ARMS!! Its like everything that she's done never happened!! Well I haven't forgotten what she's done, I will never forget it. She hurt me, she and Zedd. And I will never forget that, nor will I ever forgive them. Katherine acted friendly to me and I had to grit my teeth and act civil to her even though what I really wanted to do was put my fist through her mouth. And rip her from limb to limb. It practically killed me when Tommy told Katherine about the Power Ranger Power Blast, I wanted to yell at him.

"She's still the enemy!" But I had to bite my tongue and show her how to summon the power, divide it into two equal sources and fire, and I have to admit, she's a quick study. After a few tries she got it down pat. _Hmm, must have been studying us in all the battles._

A few days after Kimberly left, I had to think about where I was going to live from now on, I was thinking of moving back in with my sister...but she would have moved on by now and so would have the rest of my family members. I talked my predicament over with my friends the next day at lunch.

"I can't afford an apartment since I don't have a job and saving the planet is a 24 hour job in itself."

"You could stay at the Command Center or the Temple of Power until you've figured something out " said Rocky. _Not a bad idea. I wonder if Ninjor would mind having some company for a couple of weeks._ Katherine came running into the Juice Bar.

"Hi, Amy I just got an e-mail from Kimberly." My eyes flashed ad my hand tighten around the fork that I was holding, but I fixed a curious look on my face.

"Oh, what did she say?" _Why is Kimberly writing to Katherine? _Katherine had an nervous but excited look on her face. She had a print out of the e-mail in her hand. I took it from her controlling my movement and read the paper. My eyes widen as I read it._ She wants me to move in with Katherine?? Katherine?? The girl that laughed while I lay on the floor of Zedd's palace screaming while he filled my mind and my body with electricity!_ _ I would rather die!!_ I was furious at Kim for even suggesting this, I told her what Katherine had done to me, how she had treated me, how she was the one that took away the Pink Power Cion, Ninjor and the Falcon Zord and nearly cost Kim her life. But _she_ actually said that people deserve second chances. _Second chances my foot!! Katherine doesn't deserve a second chance, not after what she's done._ Tommy looked at me and I relaxed my expression and my hand.

"I don't know Katherine, I really don't want to be a burden." Katherine shook her head at me.

"You won't be a burden Ames." _Don't call me Ames._ Katherine had already finished telling the others what Kim's e-mail said.

"Actually I want to, it...it'll make up for all of the horrible things that I've done to you..."_ Nothing in the world can make up for what I've suffered. _I put on a thoughtful look.

"Can I think about this?" The boys stared at me.

"Amy what's to think about?"

"Yeah, someone's offering you a home." _Or a death trap in disguise_. I struggled to hold in my shock and outrage. It was as if my friends didn't want to hear my opinion, it was as if they didn't care that she took part in my torture, that didn't matter as long as she filled in the spot for Pink Ranger. _How can they forgive her so easily? Aren't they still angry with her?_ I gave an inward sigh, thinking that there was no way that I could ever tell my friends that I still hated and didn't trust Katherine.

"Alright, I'll come live with you Katherine. So are we going to be sharing a room or am I going to be sleeping in my own room?" Katherine let out a squeal and threw her arms around me and hugged me tightly, I politely hugged her back.

After school Katherine walked back with me to Kim's house, once we got there we both went inside and began to pack up my stuff. I wasn't about to use my powers to speed things up, I needed something to do, to try and forget that I was going to be living in the house of a former enemy. Just then I felt bad. _I was a former enemy to Kim and the others. __And even though they never knew who I used to be they took me in, offered me a home and friendship._ And I had vowed to repay them, by working my hardest by killing the man and the monster responsible for their pain and mine. _But...if they had known that I was the one that killed Aishia...would they have forgiven me as easily as they've forgiven Katherine? _Soon we had everything packed, Rocky came by in his truck and helped us load everything, I didn't have a lot of stuff, well except for clothes, so it only took one trip, two counting my bureau and my bed. I looked back at the house before climbing into Rocky's truck, with a sigh I closed the door and continued to look at the house as we drove away.

Katherine's house was a one story building, I felt relieved by this. I had enough difficulty climbing the stairs at school. I stared up at the house for a full minute then taking a deep breath I got out of Rocky's truck and began to help unload the boxes. The house was big with a back yard. Katherine kept stealing glances toward me and I gave her a polite smile. My room was to the left of the hall, Katherine's room was across the hall from mine, the bathroom was to the right of the hall and so was her dad's room. The living room was large and spacious and so was the kitchen, with a backdoor that lead into the back yard. Sunshine was streaming in through the windows making all the rooms bright. While in the dungeons I thought for sure that I would never see the sun again. The house was a little more farther away from the school and also the cemetery. I didn't mind though, a lot has happened and I needed some time to think. After unloading the boxes, taking out all of my clothes, unloading my bed and my bureau Katherine helped my out in unpacking everything. At first we only worked in silence then she tried to make polite conversation to which I politely followed. Finally the unpacking was all done, I looked around my new room.

"So do you like it?" Katherine asked timidly. I glanced at her while I sat on my made bed and stroked the butterfly bracelet that Kimberly had given me. I nodded without saying anything. Katherine looked at me for a few more minutes, then she walked out the door as soon as she had gone I kicked off my shoes and lay down on the bed and stared up at the ceiling. I couldn't help but wish that Katherine would turn into the cat monster and we would have no choice but to destroy her, then Kimberly would come back, resume being the Pink Ranger and I could go back to living with her. But...it's only wishful thinking and wishful thinking never comes true.


	36. Chapter 36

Chapter 36

The next morning after waking up, I lay in bed for a while. I sat up then gave a start. _This isn't my room. All my stuff is here but...this room is...different_. I threw off my covers and stood up and looked around trying to figure out what was going on. I looked toward my clock and saw with another start that it was late._ I'm going to be late for class! Why didn't Kim wake me up? _I raced around, struggling into my jeans and shoes, then I yanked on a T-Shirt with streaks of yellow in a rainbow design, after looking at myself in the mirror I shook my head. Chossing a light yellow tank top and grabbing my back pack, I limped as fast as I could out into the hall. _What the? The stairs. Where are the stairs? Where am I? _Then it all come flooding back to me and I nealry dropped to my knees, I managed to grab the wall and steady myself. Limping slowly I made my way into the living room. I let my eyes wander over the furniture, the tv and the rug on the floor and the pictures that hung on the wall. I closed my eyes fighting back my anger, rage and shock that I felt toward my freinds and my sister. After a full minute I opened them, then with a resigned sigh I limped out the door, unlocked it, opened it, stepped out onto the porch turned and closed it. I dug in my pocket for the house key, then remembered that Katherine hadn't given me a house key. _I would rather ask her to jump off a cliff then ask her for a spare house key._ Using my powers I locked the door then I spun and began to limp to school, I had already missed first period by the time I got there, so going into the office to get a late pass I appaorched the front desk. I looked around curiously, _I've never been in here before._ In one corner was a plastic plant, along the walls were the schools former faulcty, whom, I guessed, had long since retired or were dead. Beyond the front desk was a hallway and I could only guess, the counselor's offices. I cleared my thraot nervously at the women behind the desk.She looked up and frowned at me. I gave her a nervous smile.  
"Hi. I need a late pass because..." But the woman had already handed me a pink slip and a pen, I looked down at the slip, I had to sign my name and give the reason why I was so late. I glanced up at the woman, she was staring at me as if I had committed an offense agianst her. I looked back down at the slip, quickly signed it and gave the reason. After returning the pen I stood still for a moment, wondering if I was dismissed. After a moment I began to edge my way to the door, the woman was still frowning at me, thinking this was the cue, I spun and shot out the door and limped as fast as I could to my 2nd period class.

I sat down in the cafeteria, grateful to be alone. I was about to dig into the sandwich that I had brought when a voice that I REALLY DIDN'T WANT TO HEAR said.  
"Hi, Amy. Mind if I sit with you?"  
"Yes." I said coldly. "I would." Katherine stood still for a minute looking at me, without looking up at her I said.  
"Look, if you have something to say to me just say it." I snapped at her. She flinched as though she'd been struck. She hesistated, then she pulled up a chair and sat down beside me. I looked up and glared.  
"Well?" I snapped.  
"I know that you're still angry with me about what I did to you and your friends. I had no idea that Lord Zedd was going to do all those things to you." I gritted my teeth._ I can harldy believe that. "_Um...I'll try to make it up to you, I really will and I know that it'll take a long time. But I think that one day you'll forgive me and maybe we can be... like sisters." My head shot up I swung my head around and glared at her, hatered in my eyes.  
"Don't you ever EVER say that to me again." I said that in that same vioce that I spoke in when I was choking her. She shrank back.  
"I will never forgive you and I will never call you sister. You took away the one person that I truly thought of as my sister. And you? I will never see you as nothing else but that monster that delivered me to the hands of my former master and who nearly cost me my life! Don't think that I'll just easily forgive you just because you so happen to get me out of the dungoens and helped me get back to the Command Center with Kim's Power Coin and Ninjor. If you ask me Kim and the others forgive too easily." Getting up from the table I grabbed my lunch and walked out of the cafeteria. Making my way to the stairs that lead to the roof I continued to eat my lunch there. 

On my way home alone I was enjoying the solitude, the only sounds were the cars on the street flying by. I heard someone call out to me, turning, it didn't surprise me to see Tommy, I waited until he caught up then fell in step as I continued to walk.  
"I want to talk to you." He said. I sighed and rolled my eyes."If this is about me snapping at Katherine and telling her that I'll never forgive her, I had a good enough reason to do that and no I will not apoligize to her."  
"Come on Amy." My hands balled into fists but I took a deep breath to calm myself.  
"Okay okay. I'll treat her like a teammate but that's as far as I can go. Happy?"  
"No."  
"For god's sake's Tommy what do you want me to do? Just forgive her like that because she just so happened to help me rescue Ninjor, the Power Coins not to mention my life. Believe me I'm grateful for that but that doesn't mean that she's forgiven for all the horrible stuff that she put me and you guys through."  
"If you're so grateful then why do you insist on looking at her like she is still the enemy." He snapped.  
"Because, I still can't get past the fact that she nearly destoryed the Power Rangers, nearly cost Kim, my sister and your girlfreind her life, handed me over to Lord Zedd and participated in my torture."  
"It wasn't her fault and you know that, she was underneath a spell, you can't fight any of Rita's or Zedd's spell there too powerful."  
"She could have at least tried to fight when she first met Zedd and Rita."  
"Like you did." I had to work really hard to keep from taking a swing at him.  
"Amy, she feels really bad about what she's done and she's trying to make it up to us by fighting on our side, she trying to make it up to you by giving you a home. She doens't need reminders of what she went through, she trying to put it behind her, but the way you look at her, she can't forget."  
"So, what you're saying is that we should just forget everything that she put us through, what Kimberly has gone through, what I have gone through. And act as if everything had never happened." I snapped angrily at him. We had both stopped and were glaring at eachother.  
"I did not say that."  
"No?! Well, it sure sounds like it and looks like it by the way you and the others are treating and acting toward her. Its like youv'e turned a blind eye to her crimes. To everything that happened. If you ask me all of you have no idea the real pain evil can do to a person." Tommy's eyes widen in anger, I had started to limp away when he called out to me.  
"Hey! Don't you dare protonize me! I know the pain that bieng evil can cause to a person, I was placed underneath a spell too, I feel bad about what Rita forced me to do. And I live with the pain everyday. I know what it's like to be in pain."  
"Do you?" I sneered."Yeah, I do." Tommy snapped.  
"Okay then Tommy. Tell me, did you ever fear for your life while you were underneath that spell? Did you ever think that if you didn't do the job that you would be killed by your master's hands? Were you ever used as a punching bag or a whipping post because you didn't try hard enough to do the job? Was your family ever threaten if you didn't complete it?" Tommy stood silent for a moment, he looked at me.  
"No."  
"Then you have no idea what true pain is like." I snarled at him, then without another word I morphed into a puddle of liquid and took off for the city of Leawood.

I had to get away from my friends and Katherine, I considered just wandering around Leawood, but then Dregon would surely spot me and I was in no mood for a battle. So I went to the cave where Magno and Chopper were living in. I was relived to see that it was empty. Matirealizing into human form, I sat down on a rock and cupped my chin in my hands, and stared bleakly at the wall. I glanced down at my wrist and saw my communicator, I took it off and flung it across the cave it landed on the floor. Soon it began to beep. I ignored it. And continued to stare at the wall and think. _How can they? How can they forgive her so easily? Make her a teammate so easily? Forget all that she's done? All the pain that she caused. __They're acting like it never happened. Don't they resent her? Don't they hate her? _I shook my head, thinking that I could never fully understand my friends reasons for...for...their blindness. _In a way, all of them are really blind. I was the only ranger who suspected Katherine of bieng an enemy. _I leaned my head back and let out a sigh. _Why are they acting like this? Is it becuase they don't want to dwell on the pain that Katherine cuased them? Is that it? Or maybe its guilt, maybe they feel guilty that even though they have been fighting Zedd and Rita for a pretty long time, they don't _really_ know thier own enemies. _I had gotten to know Lord Zedd, Rita and Goldar. the Tengu Warriors and Rito were still a bit of a mystery to me. I closed my eyes and thought. Lord Zedd, who hated failure would usually yell at his cronies and blame them for his failures, Rita was the same was, only she recieved headaches and would retreat to her room, Goldar would blame Rito or the Tengu Warriors, while Rito picked a fight with Goldar and the two of them would duke it out untill the both of them would be lying on the floor bleeding. Finster would tend to their wounds while scolding them as if they were little kids. That all changed once I arrived. If one of Zedd's monster's failed I would be beaten, if Goldar failed I would be beaten, if Rito failed I would be beaten, if the Tengus failed I would be beaten. If all of them failed I would be on the floor screaming or be whipped. Bieng Zedd's slave, I had gained an insight of thier minds and how they worked. _I guess I should be grateful._ I opened my eyes and noticed that my communicator had stopped beeping and also that the cave was a bit dark. _It must be night time._ I was a bit dissapionted that Dex hadn't come by the cave but that was fine by me. _Sometimes a person just has to be by herself._ I got up, picked up my communicator, tucked it into my pocket morphed into a puddle of liquid and took off, back to Angel Grove.


	37. Chapter 37

Chapter 37

Tommy was right, I should at least try to forgive Katherine. On one hand she had no control over herself or her actions, to Lord Zedd she was merely a puppet and he was pulling the strings. Creepy image yes, but that's the way it is. On the other hand he might see how I'm treating and acting toward Katherine and use that to further antagonize me. Which could mean me turning against her and doing something that I might regret later but secretly being happy about it. So after a good yelling at from Zordon and Tommy, I swallowed my pride and began to treat Katherine with respect and courtesy. But that was far as I could go, I had other things on my mind. _He killed my parents as a first punishment, and he took Kimberly away from me as a second punishment. And all because I betrayed him._ I had to admit that it kind of peeved me off that Katherine wasn't being punished like I was, but then her betrayal must have seen like small potatoes compared to mine. But... and I hate myself for asking this but..._Where's the justice in that?_ _For betraying my former master my parents get killed, my sister is stripped of her powers and takes off to live a normal life, I get captured, and tortured. Katherine_, _on the other hand, gets captured and thrown into the dungeons where I am. But he didn't lay a single hand on her, I didn't see any bruises on her when she was thrown in the cage, did you? Amy, you're obsessing, calm down. Okay, okay, I'm calm, I'm calm. Let's think about the punishments. Okay number one was the murder of your parents, the second was of taking away your best friend and sister. So, the question is, is there going to be third punishment? My gut says yes,_ but when is this third punishment going to take place is all up in the air. _I have to be ready, he could be going after my friends or the rest of my family, I have to be ready to fight at a moment's notice_. Dex, after hearing about the third punishment said that he will also be ready to fight by my side. I thanked him mightily.

Tommy had been disappointed when other than bringing back Ninjor and the Coins, we failed to bring back the Falcon Zord, which thanks to a spell that was cast by Zedd had changed into a real falcon when it was taken by Katherine. I wasn't sure how to break the news to him since from what Kim had told me, Tommy had been very fond of his Falcon Zord. Rocky had once stolen a ride on it and treated it like one of those machine gun airplanes, pretending to fire bullets at the Command Center while the rest of us were on the floor laughing while Zordon and Tommy were both yelling at him. I had sat Tommy down at the park and told him what I had seen while in Zedd's throne room. He seemed to rock back, a shocked look on his face.  
"Blood and feathers?" He whispered. I nodded.

"Tommy, I'm really sorry, Kim told me that you were fond of your Zord." He got up and had turned his back on me.  
"Are you sure those feathers were my Falcon Zord's?" He finally said. I blinked then thought back. My only objective was to get the Coins and Ninjor and myself out of the palace, in a corner of the room I had seen a cage. It appeared empty except for the blood and the feathers that were littered on the floor of the cage. I had thought, when I saw the cage that Goldar or Rito had killed the falcon.  
"I'm sure Tommy, t--the feathers were white." Tommy sighed. Then he turned toward me, it took a while but then he shrugged his shoulders.  
"Zords come and go Amy, that's what happens when you're a Power Ranger." I had blinked and stared at him but decided not to say anything. Maybe they were used to Zords being taken away and replaced with all new ones. I wondered how many Zords the Power Ranger team has had, but I thought that now wasn't a best time to ask. Kim had sent me several e-mails, and it felt good talking to her and sharing news. I still missed her and kept thinking that any minute now she was going to come bursting into my room and jump on my bed, and the end result would be that I would fall off and yell at her while she ran away from me laughing. I knew for a fact that Katherine and I would never be as close as Kimberly and me. I was visiting Mom and my step-dad again, and I felt much better now that I've mourned for her, considering the fact that I had mourned for her while in chains. I told them all bout my feelings toward Katherine, what had happened to Kim, getting new Zords, which I had to admit were pretty awesome, even though I had a bit of trouble controlling my Zord.  
"And I thought my Bear Zord had a lot of buttons." I joked. Alpha had taught me how to steer, fire its weapons and join it with the others to make the Shogun Mega Zord until I had gotten the hang of it, and a few hours had passed and my friends and I began to play "Red Rover, Red Rover" with the Shoguns. By the time I was limping home, it was dark yet I felt really good talking to mom and my step-dad again. As I unlocked the door to the house and entered ready for a good night's sleep. But then I was afraid of closing my eyes. I still had nightmares about my time in Zedd's palace, the nightmares consisted of being tortured until I had been driven insane, being turned back into that monster and attacking Katherine but after I had killed her, I had realized to my horror that I had actually killed Kimberly._ I may have healed the bruises on my body but there is pain that not even my powers can heal. _I stopped outside of my bed room not really wanting to go to sleep, not yet anyway. So turning, I limped to Katherine's room and poked my head in. She was sitting on the bed and writing on a piece of paper. I took a deep breath and called out a greeting. She looked up and she smiled.  
"Hey." She said. I smiled back at her and entered, limping over to her bed I sat down and stared at my hands for a while not sure what to say.  
"Listen Katherine...uh...about what I said at the cafeteria..." I paused not sure if I wanted to go on. "I--I'm sorry, I know that you're trying your hardest to...ya know...make it up to me and all but..."  
"Amy, I know that you'll never forgive for handing you over to Lord Zedd and doing all that stuff to you...heck even I wouldn't forgive me. It's just that I..."  
"I know believe me I've been there myself. The spells are very tough to escape from and from what I've heard you're the first person to fight it." Katherine had a small smile on her face.  
"Have you tried to fight the spell that you were placed under?"  
"I wasn't actually "placed underneath a spell" per say. I was free most of the time, the thing was that the spell would take over whenever my master called for me to do...certain things for him." She nodded, we were both silent.  
"I--I finally became really free a--after I performed a certain deed for him." I looked away. Katherine took a deep breath and let it out in a sigh.  
"He told me that whenever you failed, he would hurt you, is that why you have those scars on your back?" I looked at her.

"You saw those?" She nodded, I sighed.  
"I--I can understand him not laying a hand on you...you...uh...succeeded in stealing a Power Coin, two actually." She flinched.  
"Sorry about that."  
"Its okay. " We were both silent, then I heave myself off the bed. Turning I said.  
"It was nice talking to you." She smiled me and nodded, then I went to my room and closed the door.

After that night I began to feel more comfortable around her as the days passed even going so far as playfully arguing with her over who would wash the dishes. The others were glad that I was treating Katherine like a friend and a teammate, even Dex was glad for the change in attitude. Katherine had asked questions about the man that had saved us from Zedd's palace, and despite my trying to show her that I trusted her, I had only told her that the Masked Rider was only a friend that would help us out from time to time. Her eyes had widen when she heard that there was another superhero besides the Power Rangers. She seemed equally surprised to find out that I had a boyfriend, both of them had met when I called Dex up, wanting to talk with him and spend some time alone with him. There were still some questions that were still burning in my mind like Why me? How did he know that I had powers in the first place? Did somebody tell him? I bounced off this questions to Dex, we came up with several theories as to how Lord Zedd had chosen me and knew about my powers but none of them stuck. And I was beginning to think that we may never know the answer or the full story. Then as if I needed any reminding of what was to come, Goldar paid me a visit.

We had just beat that smelly Garbage Can monster, who turned out to be a lot more stronger and tougher then we imagined. One of his powers was burying us underneath large amounts of garbage. I must have washed myself 20 times and while I was washing my hair for the fifteenth time I wondered if I was overdoing it a little. The monster's attacks weren't that bad, we defeated him with a combined Power Blast from the Shogun Mega Zord. What was bad was Lord Zedd touching me and running his fingers through my hair, I still got goose bumps whenever I thought about it. I had soaked myself in hot water despite the pain it brought to my back and washed my hair with a mixture of vinegar and shampoo, until I could no longer feel his fingers on my scalp.

I shivered as I slipped into clean underwear and pulled a loose t-shirt over my head, then I pulled some shorts on. I was about to crawl into bed when I heard something behind me, before I could turn something slammed into my back and shoved me against the wall, I cried out as I began to struggle, I heard the voice of Goldar rasp into my ear.

"Thought you needed a bit of a reminder about what's coming up for you." He grabbed me by the back of my neck and flung me across the room, I landed on the floor on my side, I struggled to my feet but Goldar kicked me, I fell on my back. He picked me up by the front of my shirt and punched me hard in the stomach and clamped a hand over my mouth and pulling out his sword with the other he inserted it into my ankle, my scream was muffled. Outside in the hall Katherine heard something from my room, stepping out into the hall she knocked on my closed door and called to me.

"Amy? Everything alright?" She heard the sounds of thumping and punching. She grabbed the door knob and tried to opened it, it wouldn't open! She began to pound on it yelling my name. She turned and ran into her room, got her communicator and called on Tommy. He came then the both of them ran to my door and began to pound on it and tried to break it down but no matter what they tried nothing worked. They heard screams and yelps of pain. They heard a sickening thump that made the door shake. Katherine shrieked and Tommy leapt back as the tip of Goldar's sword went through the door, the tip was covered in blood. It retracted then all was silent.

"Amy?" called Tommy softly. Katherine tried the knob, the door opened at her touch. Both of them looked into my room, I had been flung to the other side of the room. I was lying on my side, staring at them. Both of them ran toward me they saw the bruises and the marks that Goldar left blood was oozing from my side and onto the carpet. Tommy dropped to his knees, picked me up and lay me gently on the bed. Katherine was shaking all over. I looked at the both of them.

"Please make it stop." I whispered as tears streamed down my face.

Tommy stayed awake the rest of the night and guarded us from further attacks, but none came.


	38. Chapter 38

Chapter 38

I leaned against my locker at school and closed my eyes. I was so tired. I had seen Tommy earlier and it looked like he had only gotten a few hours of sleep or not at all. Last night while he had been guarding the house, I had tried to persuade him to get some rest while I took a turn on staying watch. He had refused, and I had gone back to bed without any argument, but I had lain awake. Straining my ears and my senses, my heart was pounding double time, I was so sure that Goldar was going to come back at any moment and finish me off. I kept jumping at the smallest of sounds sure that Goldar was in the house. In the back of my mind I thought of Kimberly, far away and safe from all of this, living a normal and carefree life. For her the only thing that she would worry about would be if she got to her next meet on time and weather or not she preformed well. A prickle of resentment made it self known to me, I let out a sigh. _I shouldn't resent Kim besides I'm the one that brought this entire thing onto myself, no way to change that. No matter how many times I wish it were different._ I heard footsteps approaching, cracking open one eye I saw Tommy heading toward me. Stopping he looked at me for a few moments, I looked up at him. He had hardly paid attention in class and the others had asked him why he hadn't called them, they would have come and helped. But Tommy, being our leader and all, I guess, was just trying to spare everyone the horror of seeing a brutal attack, right in the home of a ranger. That has never happened before, Kim told me that Zedd would usually attack at the park or in downtown or outside of Angel Grove, but in their own homes never. I felt a guilty twinge of satisfaction when Rocky, Billy, and Adam had a look of disbelief on their faces. _Not even in your own homes are you safe. _I thought with a bitter smile. _Now they will probably double check locked doors even though it'll be use less, they will stay awake all night worrying if Zedd or the Tengu Warriors will appear and start attacking._

I turned my head away guiltily. _I'm sorry._ Tommy laid his hand on my shoulder.

"Hey, are you okay?" Not answering, I straighten up turned and began to limp out of the school and out onto the sidewalk. Tommy followed me and we continued to walk in silence. I wanted to forget everything, everything that was happening to me and my friends, I wanted to sleep for a long long time and wake up to a peaceful world, a world with no monsters or aliens, no fear. I wanted to wake up to a world where I wouldn't be in pain, where my friends wouldn't lose the people that they loved and cared about. But most of all I wanted for this war to be over, for all the pain, the misery and the fear, I WANTED ALL OF IT TO BE OVER!! But it will never be over, not until Zedd is and the rest of his army is killed and I intend to strike the first blow.

I thought that I would began my search for answers with Katherine, so I asked her to meet me at the Juice Bar after school the next day, which she did.

"Katherine, you told me, while in the dungeons, that you knew who we all were, that we were the Power Rangers, did you know about my powers as well?" I sipped at my coke and watched her as she nodded her head.

"Yes, Zedd told me all about them and what they were capable of doing."

"Did he ever mention to you how he found out about me and my powers in the first place?" Katherine thought for a few minutes, then she shook her head.

"No, sorry Amy. All he told me was that all of you were the Power Rangers and about your powers."

"Hmm." I closed my eyes briefly. Suddenly I thought of something.

"Katherine, do you remember if there was anyone else in the palace besides Zedd and his cronies?" After a few minutes of thinking, she nodded.

"There was this guy that watched while you...were...uh..." she began to look uncomfortable.

"Its okay. Any idea if you knew who this guy was? Did Lord Zedd introduce you to him?"

"No, he didn't. The guy just stayed in the shadows, I actually forgot about him." _A guy who stayed in the shadows. Wonder if he was there the entire time I was there._ But I didn't remember seeing anyone emerge from the shadows to approach me...though..._I did sense him._ _Whoever this guy is..._something prickled at the back of my mind but I couldn't figure out what it was. _Okay, time to go for the big moment._ Taking a deep breath, and thanking Katherine I got up and carrying my drink down to the exercise mat and waited a bit tensely for Tommy to finish with his exercise. It was always painful to dreg up memories of the horrible things that you once did, even if you had no control over your actions. But you couldn't help but still feel angry at the person for committing those acts. Right now my anger and resentment toward Katherine was fading and I was beginning to trust her. Anyway, Tommy saw that I wanted to talk to him, so, cutting his workout short, he grabbed a towel, wiped his face, slung it over his shoulder and came toward me.

"What's up?"

"Can I ask you a few questions about your st–time as the Green Ranger? The bad one?" Tommy glanced away briefly then looked at me and nodded. Sitting on a nearby bench, I took a deep breath then launched into my first question.

"How long did you work for Zedd before you were released from the spell?" Tommy blinked.

"I didn't work for Zedd, I worked for Rita, she was the one that placed the spell on me in the first place."

"Oh." I couldn't help but feel a wave of disappointment go through me.

"Why do you ask?"

"Well, I was hoping that you could answer a few questions. Hey, you worked closely with Goldar right_?" _Tommy thought for a minute. After giving me a weird look he shook his head.

"No, can't say we did. I was Rita's man, Goldar was the one that wore the rangers down and then I would come for the..." A shocked look came over his face.

"Tommy, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to..."

"I–I know...I know...can't believe that..." He shook his head, the shocked look fading. He cleared his throat.

"Why are you asking about my green ranger days?"

"Well, I just want to find out how Zedd found out about me in the first place, about my powers. So I thought that maybe you or Katherine must have heard something or were told something."

"No, at least I never heard anything about a half- alien with powers coming to Earth. I'm pretty sure that not even Goldar or Rita knew about you.."

"Is that so?" _Then that means that only Zedd knew about me beforehand, and he must have spread the word to Goldar and the others. If that's the case then someone _must_ have told him about me but who and when? And why did he attack me right after I turned 15 years old?_

"Amy? You alright?" asked Tommy. I shook my head.

"Too much on my mind and too many questions. Listen Tommy I'll see you later."

"Right, well if you ever need to talk."

"I know who to go to." He called back to me.

"Hey, you going to talk to your parents?" I turned to him and gave a sigh.

"Actually, I'm not sure who to talk to, this seems so complicated. Maybe a good talking to mom and dad will help me straighten some things out." Tommy opened his mouth, then closed it. I gave him a wave and limped away with my drink in hand. I stopped at the computer lab, wanting to e-mail Kimberly first. It'll worry her if I'm not talking to the others and her, but I'm afraid of worrying her even more if I _do_ talk with her and the others. In reality I wanted to solely talk to my parents, they've always helped me out in figuring stuff out, in their own way. But I had made a promise to Kim, to open up to my friends and try to stop living in the past. But guilt never goes away and talking to my parents eases it. I threw away my now empty drink and entered the lab, sitting down before a computer, I logged on and prepared to send an e-mail to Kim.

**Yo sis!** **What's up! How's everything? Hope you're not too exhausted from all of your training to talk to your sister. Katherine and I are getting along well although it still is kinda weird waking up in a different room ya know? But I'm getting over it. And I'm still talking to my mom and dad every Friday, so there is no need to start nagging me Kim, I'm talking to the guys as well. Listen I've got a lot of stuff on my mind and about a dozen or so questions racing around there. And it all concerns about how Zedd found out about me and my powers and if someone told him or if he found out on his own. Maybe Zordon will give me some clues, yes I'm still calling him Zordon, it'll be a while before I call him dad, but not now, its just too weird.**

I paused for a minute, that last part was true, I did feel a bit weird referring to Zordon as dad, that and having a new team mate that for all I know, didn't know that I was half-alien nor that our mentor was my real father, when I was still getting to trust that new team mate little by little. The others hadn't said anything to Katherine, my guess was that they were still a bit blown away that Zordon is a father and has a half Eltarian daughter. I continued to type

**Well anyway, I think you'll be happy to know that even though I won't refer to Zordon as dad, he is certainly acting like one when it comes to me and Dex. But what can you do? Don't worry about my ranger problems Kim, I'll figure them out, until then get a good tan, send me pictures**__**and some T-shirts or something. Tentomon says Hi by the way. Tommy sends his love and Rocky sends fake vomit. (Just kidding!) Enjoy having a peaceful life.**

**Your sister,**

**Amy.**

I sent the e-mail with a sigh. Glad that I was communicating with Kim and the others, I got up and limped toward the door, as I got to the front door of the school, much to my surprise and delight Dex was there! He was leaning against the lockers looking up and down the hall, I called out to hm and began to limp rapidly toward him. He straighten up when he heard me and turning he smiled and waited until I reached him. After hugging and kissing each other, we went out the door down the stairs and onto the sidewalk. Dex told me that he had been worried about me and kept having the feeling that I was in danger. He asked me if anything out of the ordinary regarding Zedd had occurred. I shook my head.

"No nothing out of the ordinary. Even Dregon hasn't shown his face, I haven't seen hide nor hair of him." Something tingled at the back of my mind when I said the name, but I couldn't figure out what it was.I leaned against Dex's shoulder and swung his hand,

"Amy, when this is all over...I...I would like to take you to Edenio, so you can met my grandfather." I looked at him and nodded.

"You told me so much about him he seems like a really cool guy." Dex smiled.

"He is, I look forward to seeing him again."We continued to walk in silence, I was glad for the long walk. _I wish that I could feel like this always. Safe and happy with no worries. _I breathed in deeply. _It was lucky that Dex was waiting for me after school. Waiting. Now that I think about it, Lord Zedd did seem to be waiting for me on that day_**, **_in fact all those times he stole my powers, he seemed to know exactly what to do_**. **_He knew how to extract them as if someone had taught him._I swallowed hard. I turned to Dex, who was busily looking around with a slight frown on his face.

"Dex?" He turned to me_**.**_

"Didn't you tell me this one time that Dregon can extract power and energy from a person?"

"Yeah. Why?" I began to tremble and soon we were surrounded by Goldar, Rito, Cyclopter and Double-Face. Dex and I saw them and were in combative stances with our backs pressed to each others.

"Because I think I just found out how Lord Zedd found out about me and my powers." Before either of us could transform we were both slammed with a large energy blast, I was ready for it and placed a shield before it really hit.

"Ecto Phase Activate! Masked Rider!" A horde of Tengus came up behind us Dex met them head on, meanwhile Goldar Rito, Cyclopter and Double-Face were firing a stream of energy at the shield trying to break it down. It was all I could do to stay focused, it was so powerful!

_They're working together._ My knees were shaking, I was giving in! They must have seen this because they put more power into their attacks! I slid back a few inches, I felt myself beginning to tire under the strain, my leg began to slowly bend. _No! No!_ The others arrived but an insectivore and a monster were keeping them busy, even Ninjor was dueling with another insectivore! _I have to morph._ But I couldn't reach my morpher, even if I could I would have to break the shield. _I can't keep this up!! _I heard Dex cry out, it was my mistake to turn toward him. The shield went down. The Tengu Warriors all leapt back as Dex and I were engulfed in the blast. Both of us let out screams as we went flying through the air, we landedon the ground a foot from each other. I heard the others cry out and shout my name and their screams but all of my attention was on Dex. I managed to turn myself over onto my stomach and saw that he wasn't moving. _He's not dead. He can't be!_I began to crawl toward him**.**

"Dex? Dex! Are you okay?" I grunted as I struggled to reach him, I wanted him to get up, I wanted to tell me that he was okay, I wanted him to take me away from here. Tears were streaming down my eyes as I felt Goldar grab me and haul me roughly to my feet. _You guys, Dex, I'm sorry. I wish you weren't involved in all of this. If only...if only I had never been born._


	39. Chapter 39

Chapter 39

**I was on another roll. **

I was in shackles before I had time to blink and presented to Lord Zedd. Count Dregon was once again in the shadows watching, I wondered if I would ever met him face to face. I looked up at Zedd.

"All this time, you knew who I was. That I was half human Count Dregon must have told you when he was looking for me and mom."

"Once again Amy you show intelligence far greater then your fellow rangers." Zedd purred, I was sure that if he had a mouth he would be smiling. Goldar and Rito were doing enough smiling for the both of them. He took a step toward me and I tried not to recoil as he bent down and once again ran a hand through my hair.

"Yes, I knew. Dregon proved me with information about you. At first it didn't interest me but after I heard about your powers, well...he had my attention. Unfortunately your locket where your powers were stored was protected by Zordon and your mother, I couldn't touch it. But then came my chance, I watched your mother give the locket to you when you turned 15. But your father was watching as well, I began to plan to get my hands on that power. So I planned a distraction, all eyes would be on it including Zordon's and that gave me the chance. Luckily for me you didn't know how to fully harness them which made the threat of your family being targeted all the more easier to get the power within my reach. I wanted to use your power to destroy the rangers, but alas I couldn't touch the locket...but I could extract the power from within it. So it caused you immense pain, power does that. Sadly I couldn't take all of it, even though your power is exceptionally powerful, I couldn't handle it." I stared at him, I was slowly curling into a ball and pulling my knees up until they rested against my chest, as Zedd stood up and continued.

"So I used you and your power to kill Aisha, my plans for once worked. But, sadly, you couldn't kill the rest, you were running low on power and human energy. Even though I wanted to keep you underneath the spell until all of the rangers were killed, I'm a man of my word. When I saw that you had joined with the rangers, I wanted to torture you until you begged for death. But Goldar stopped me, incredibly he suggested that I let you live but start to break you slowly and make you suffer as a ranger and as a person."

"The three punishments." He nodded.

"He thought that the guilt of slaying of Aisha and the fear that the rangers would one day find out wasn't enough, not even you insecurities about weather or not you would make a good ranger. So as an added bonus we killed your parents. But that still wasn't enough, even when we saw that you blamed yourself for your parents deaths, we wanted to hit something a little more closer to home. So I called on Count Dregon to attack you and reveal a long hidden secret from your Eltarian past, it was a joy seeing you struggle with a past that you couldn't remember, another joy when you shouted all those things at your mother's tombstone, you actually kicked dirt all over it. Then we decided to recreate that guilt with your beloved sister. I must say watching you crawling trying to reach the Power Cions was absolutely thrilling," Goldar grinned, he and Rito were both fingering their sword hilts.

"I can see that right now you are tired of all of this, you want all of this to end. I'm just the man to do that." he said. He turned and began to walk away until he was a foot away from me, Goldar and Rito stood on either side of him in a line, I curled tighter into a ball dreading what they were going to do. In the back of my mind it came as a surprise to me I could no longer sense Dregon.

"Now, I think we should commence with the final punishment. But first, I think its high time that you knew what went on in your house on the day that your mother died." I saw the red beam shoot out of his staff and fly toward me.

_I found myself in my old house and saw Mom, she was alive!! I began to scream at her to get out of the house that she was going to be killed but she couldn't hear me. I began to kick and hit her, trying to get her attention. Tears were streaming down my eyes as I continued to scream and kick at her. But it was as if I wasn't there! Dregon came bursting through the door_ _and advanced on her. Mom had a shocked look on her face._

"_How did you find me?"_

"_I have my sources." Anger blazed in his eyes as he looked her over._

"_I see you're well_, _settled down with a human insect_ _and had that human's spawn_. _Not that I care about them. I care about that particular one, the filthy half-ling the one that you had with that filthy Eltarian_."

"_What do you want with Amy?"_

"_You named it?" Both of them turned when my step-dad walked in and immediately was ambushed by Dregon's men. Cyclopter took out his sword and killed him, right in front of mom! She screamed and dashed forward but Dregon grabbed her and shoved her against a wall and pinned her there. Zedd stood watching as Dregon looked at mom and ran his hand through her hair and down her face, mom turned her head away from him._

"_It's been a long time Anna, and yet you're still the same beautiful woman_ _that I kidnaped all those years ago."_

"_Zordon!" Mom screamed. __But her cry was cut short as Dregon plunged a dagger into her chest. Dregon stepped back as he watched her fall to the floor_. _I stood there horror struck as Dregon turned away from my mother's body and vanished along with Zedd's and Dregon's men. I dropped to my knees and tried to pick up my mom's head, to cradle it in my lap and try to give her comfort but I couldn't. I began to cry because I couldn't touch her or comfort her in her last moments. Mom, mom. I'm so sorry. Mom had tears streaming down her cheeks. She let out a few gasps. Then she said something in a low whisper, I had to lean close to hear._

"_Zordon, take care of her." Then mom stopped breathing. _In a flash I was brought back to the palace.

"Send me back!!" I screamed, tears were running down my cheeks at what I had seen.

"Send me back please! I wanna—I wanna be with her please!"

"And you shall, but first the final punishment." said Zedd. All three of them raised their weapons and pointed them at me and shot 3 red beams that engulfed my body. I have never felt so much pain in my life, the punishments that I received for all of my failures for not killing Aisha was nothing compared to this. This time I really did beg them to kill me. I'm not sure if they heard me, they were too busy laughing, watching me while I squirmed and convulsed in pain. I'm not sure how long they...all I knew was that I heard someone calling to me, it sounded like mom. I shut my eyes as another beam slammed into me and I felt that same pain that came whenever Zedd extracted my power. I felt my body beginning to feel colder and colder by the moment. I wondered idly if I was dying...if I was ...then I'm ready. Zedd was right. _I am growing tired_ _I want all of this to end and if this is the only way to end it, then so be it. I just wish that I said good-bye to my friends and to tell Dex that I love him and to tell Zordon–Dad that I'm sorry for yelling at him._ My body grew more colder, my eyes took on the glassy stare of the dead, my screams died in my throat and my body grew still. I was dead.

"Amy?" Someone said. "Amy?" Wake up honey." I cracked open my eyes slowly and looked around. Then I bolted upright. For a split second I thought for sure that I was in my old room and mom was trying to rouse me to get ready for school. But upon putting on my glasses and looking around I saw what looked like pillars, all around me. I stood up slowly, surprised that my body wasn't throbbing with pain from those beams. I looked down at myself, the shackles were gone, I took a step forward, I could walk normally! My limp was gone! _Is this heaven? _Faintly I thought that I shouldn't be here, not after what I've done. I touched my locket wondering if it was still around my neck, it was but it was broken. Taking it off and holding it in my hand I saw that it had been broken in half. _Looks like Zedd succeeded in taking all of my power._ I slid the locket into my front pocket. In a way I was glad. I heard footsteps behind me, turning I let out a gasp. Happy tears welled up in my eyes and streamed down my face. It was Mom! She was alright! I threw my arms around her and began to cry, she hugged me back.

"Mom." I whispered. After several long moments we separated and mom smiled at me.

"Where's dad? Is he on his way? I can't wait to see him." I felt happy to be reunited with my mother again and I was looking forward to seeing my father. But I felt sadden that I would be separating from my friends and Dex. I began to tug on Mom's hands eager to find Dad and see him. But Mom just stood there.

"Come on mom, I wanna see dad." Mom didn't move as I continued to tug.

"Honey, wait, there's someone else coming. We have to wait until she gets here okay?" I scowled. _I really wanted to see dad. _But I did as mom said, while we waited I told her all bout my friends and Dex and going out on my dates and getting my first kiss, mom smiled and asked a few questions here and there. I knew that she had heard all of this before but it was a real thrill to able to talk to her in person, despite myself I began to dance out of pure joy of seeing her. Mom turned her head to the left as if she had heard something.

"She's coming." I stopped dancing and looked over to where she was looking and indeed some one was coming.

"Who is it mom?" She didn't answer, she and I both waited until the person came closer and my mouth dropped open.

"Aisha." I took a step back and shrank away from her.

"Hey, its alright. I'm not going to hurt you. " She smiled at me, I continued to stare at her amazed that she wasn't angry with me for killing her. But I also felt curiosity I mean this is the first time that we had ever met face to face. I swallowed hard.

"You know who I—?" She nodded.

"Yeah afterwards I found out about you. But I forgive you, I really do. Zedd's spells are really powerful and you had no control over what you were doing." _That's what Tommy said about Katherine_.

"I'm glad that you're on our side now, my friends really needed your help. And from what I saw you've done a pretty good job of kicking Lord Zedd's butt." It was a while before I could talk. _Is she actually praising me?_

"Thanks, but he succeeded in taking my power and I've caused nothing but pain for my–uh–the other rangers." Aisha looked at me sympathetically and mom squeezed my shoulder. I dug in my pocket and pulled out the locket. Mom took it and looked it over. She handed it to Aisha.

"Mom, I'm sorry. Aisha—I tried my best to protect the rangers and you but Zedd found a way to hurt them and he lead Dregon to you mom..." Tears were streaming down my eyes and I buried my face in my hands.

"Hey, hey you tried your best and that's what counts. Lord Zedd knows that we all have weaknesses, but that goes to show that despite that we grow stronger. You mustn't forget that, you are more stronger than you realize and Lord Zedd knows that. In fact he knows that one day you will be the one to finally bring him down and that scares him. That's why he's doing this to you and the others, he thinks that you'll get so freaked out and tired and guilty that you'll quit. But me and your mom both know that you aren't going to do that, because you won't let Lord Zedd have the last laugh, you've got a lot of people watching your back and they are going to help you so you shouldn't let them down." I stared at her.

"But I've already let them down! I'm dead Zedd killed me!"

"He may have but he didn't count on us appearing and sending you back alive and with all of your powers intact." Mom said.

"You're sending me back? But I--no! I don't want to go back! I want to stay here! With my mom, I want to see my dad again. Please! Don't send me back, I can't stand..." I began to cry and threw my arms around mom again she was also crying.

"Amy," said Aisha softly."You have to, its not your time yet. Don't worry you'll see your mom again. But right now you have to fulfill the promise that you made to me and to your mom. You have to destroy the monster that killed us both." I sniffed and nodded, I took a step back from Mom. Aisha handed me my locket, I looked down at it. It was whole again, but it had the symbol on it. The symbol looked like an upside down triangle._The symbol of Zordon's planet Eltar._ I pulled the chain over my head, the locket rested against my chest. I looked at Aisha and Mom.

"Thank you, both of you." Aisha smiled.

"We rangers watch out for each other, good bye and good luck and tell the guys I said hey." I nodded. Mom hugged me tightly saying that she loved me and that she was very proud of me. I closed my eyes as her warmth slowly began to fade, to be replaced by coldness. The next moment I was aware of the sound of people crying. Someone let out an anguished wail. I slowly opened my eyes. And I saw my friends, Dex and Tommy had dropped to their knees in the middle of the Command Center, Billy was being supported by Alpha as tears streamed down his face, Katherine and Rocky were holding onto each other. Adam and Ninjor both had their heads bowed. Dad had his eyes closed and looked as if he didn't want to live.

"What are we going to do now?" I heard Rocky whisper. I struggled to sit up.

"What do you mean 'what are you gonna do?'We're going to do what we always do, kick Lord Zedd's butt big time." All their heads snapped up and eyes widen in shock and disbelief. Then several voices screamed out my name and arms were wrapping themselves around me as my friends hugged me and kissed me and they started to cry again, but out of relief and joy.

"Amy! Oh thank god, I thought for sure that-- Are you alright?" asked Zordon. I looked up at him.

"Yeah, I'm okay Dad." He stared at me in surprise and shock then a happy smile lit his entire face up. Dex came up and kissed me hard on the mouth, he hugged me tightly and began to cry, Alpha and Ninjor began to fight over who would get to hug me first. After all of it was over, I explained to them what had happened in the palace, only telling them that Zedd showed me that it wasn't Zedd that killed mom, it was Count Dregon. Then I told them about how Zedd stole all of my power and my brief reunion with my mom and meeting Aisha and how she repaired my locket. I gave them Aisha's message. The boys were crying wishing that they had received the message themselves but glad that she had given me my life and my powers back. Dad was glad as well and kept yelling at everyone to leave me alone and that I needed rest and Rocky will you stop crying already, Amy's alright. Dad had tears running down his face. I was glad to be with my friends again. _Don't worry Aisha, don't worry Mom I will keep my promise. You can count on it._


	40. Chapter 40

Chapter 40

Even though I knew that Zedd would be pretty ticked once he found out that I had survived and had gotten my powers back and that he would take his rage and disbelief out on the planet, all those things were moved to the back of my mind. Right now I was glad to be alive and grateful for my mother and Aisha for giving me my life and my powers back, but most of all... that I was forgiven by the former yellow ranger herself for falling underneath the spell that caused her death. I was planning on planting some flowers on Aisha's and Mom's graves as a token of gratitude, Dad said that Mom would have really liked that. He was really glad that I was no longer angry at him and had accepted him as my father. Katherine's jaw practically dropped to the floor when she heard me call Zordon Dad and the story was explained to her while Dex took me home, Dad had actually given Dex a warning look before Dex helped me to my feet and together we teleported to my room. There he had held me in his arms for a while, I wanted him to stay and never leave. After giving me a long kiss he told me that he would come back later to see how I was doing. I laid myself onto my bed and instantly fell asleep exhausted. When I later woke up, I was surprised to see that it was morning! I sat up groggily and reached for my glasses, grabbing my clock I focused on the numbers and realized with a shock that it was 12'oclock! _I slept for the entire day._ I gave a yawn and stretched.

I heard someone snore, startled I turned and saw Dex across the room. He was sitting in a chair and he had fallen asleep in it, I smiled at him, touched by how much he cared for me. There were times when I had thought that he only loved me because I had this amazing power and that he loved the Yellow Ranger, but over time, it came clear to me that he loved me, Amy Karmer. I pulled back the covers and slid off the bed, then limping I went toward him and stood in front of him, leaning down I pressed my lips to his, he returned the kiss. He opened his eyes as I straighten up, and he smiled at me. I stepped back as he stretched, stood up, gathered me in his arms and kissed me hard on the mouth. I leaned my head against his chest as he stroked my hair, we stayed like that for a while. Finally I looked up at him.

"Dex, I–I didn't want to come back...I wanted to stay with Mom...I—I didn't want to go back to the pain." I felt the need to confess this to him. He tighten his hold and kissed me again, in his kiss he was saying _I'm glad you came back._

"But I couldn't, I had made a promise to Mom, to Aisha and to myself. And I'm going to fulfill that promise."

"I'll help, you know that I will." He said in a soft voice, he closed his eyes for a bit while resting his chin on my head.

"What are you doing here?"

"I told you that I would come to see how you were doing and here I am." I moved away from him and gave him a stern look, he grinned.

"AW, you got me. Okay I told my teacher that I had to go to the bathroom, I've only been here for a couple of minutes I swear. I fell asleep because, well...I didn't sleep at all last night. I was really worried about you."

"I appreciate your concern but you mustn't skip class, you'll get in trouble."

"That's the least of my worries."

"Come on Dex, you should go back to class before you get into trouble."

"Okay, I'm going. But you can't blame me for checking up on you besides...before I met you...I–I've been feeling lonely and even though I've got my family, the Stewarts...they're not...ya know...they're not...like me. After I found out that you were an Eltarain...I—I didn't feel so lonely anymore, and I don't know if I can bear it if I lost you and returned to being alone." I didn't say anything, I just stood there holding his hands.

"You won't lose me ever again Dex, I promise you that. I'll always be by your side." He smiled.

"Thanks Amy." After sharing another long kiss, Dex left. I sat down on the bed and gave a sigh, glad that I had someone like him. _Mom would have loved him._ I thought then giving myself a small shake I got up again, put on some clean clothes and went to the kitchen to get something to eat.

Kimberly came over later which was a surprise to me. It turns out that she had called Tommy, who had teleported to Florida and had begged Dad to teleport her to Angel Grove. Kimberly had nearly throttled me when she threw her arms around me and she asked me questions about what had happened while she had been away and what had Lord Zedd done to me and she couldn't believe that I had nearly died and oh Amy why didn't you call me? She began to cry which made me feel slightly guilty. Even though she was my sister, best friend and fellow ranger I had no intention of telling her what had happened the other day, wanting to spare her from the horror of my "punishment", but a certain ranger with the biggest mouth on the team called her up and told her. I yelled at Tommy for blabbing to Kimberly about what had happened and he said that she had a right to know.

"A right to know that I was tortured, killed and brought back to life?" I shouted at him.

"She had a right to know because even though she's no longer on active duty she's still a Power Ranger and she's your sister. Sisters tell each other everything. Besides I wanted to pass on the message that Aisha gave to you onto Kim." I gave a sigh. _I fully understood this_. But to tell Kim what happened?Tommy shrugged his shoulders saying that he had a need to tell Kim because, if I had died Kim would have been really angry if she had left in the dark of the going ons between the rangers and Zedd.

But I was glad to see Kim again, given the circumstances. She was really glad that I had patched things up with Dad, even more so when I showed her my new locket that had the symbol of Eltar on it. She asked me if my powers were stronger, Billy stepped in and told her that my powers were slightly stronger and that they'll get stronger as I continue to grow. _I'll probably be able to control them more better as well._

Later that night, while out on the porch with Dex, both of us were gazing up at the stars. My friends were all inside giving us some time alone and finishing the last of the take-out lasagna and pizza. Dex had told me that Katherine had been freaked when she saw Masked Rider transform back into Dex Stewart and had asked questions, Alpha had explained it all to her while the others looked for me. She had been hurt when no one had told her anything because I had told everyone else to keep quiet about it, and she had confronted me and asked me whether or not I still thought of her as Rita's spy. I had told her that I didn't.

"Then why didn't you tell me that Dex was the Masked Rider?"

"That was Dex's call not mine. Besides I thought that it would be best if Dex waited until he was ready to reveal himself to you. He could have gotten angry that..."

"That I might have passed on the news to Zedd. That's it isn't it? " Her eyes flared and she glared at me. Inwardly I flinched, that was one of the reasons I had told the guys not to tell Katherine that Dex was the Masked Rider.

"Katherine don't be stupid, that's not the reason at all. I say again it was Dex's call to tell you that he was the Masked Rider, besides I had no idea that you would become the next Pink Ranger, if I had known that then I would have told you."

"That's a load of crap. Here's what I think. You...still think of me as Rita's and Zedd's servant. You...still think that I'm still under that spell, when clearly I am not. You... still think that I'll go racing to Zedd and Rita with any new information. You... still think that I'll reveal any weakness that the team has, that _you_ have to Zedd. Bottom line...you don't trust me."

"Katherine of course I trust you. Granted that I'm still a little angry at you for what you and Zedd did to me up in the palace but..." She cut me off.

"I was under a spell then, can't you see that I am not anymore? Can't you see that I regret what I've done to you and the others? Can't you see that I'm doing my best to make it up to you by taking you in?"

"I know that you regret everything..."

"NO YOU DON'T! You...can not still see past the fact that I am sorry for hurting you and the others. You...still can't see past the fact that you think that its my fault that Kimberly is no longer the Pink Ranger and that I've taken her place. You... still can't get pass the fact that I nearly destroyed the Power Rangers. In fact you...still see me as an enemy." I stayed silent, what she said was true, part of it anyway. I was still angry with her for joining Zedd in torturing me, taking away Kim's Power Cion and taking her place, and in some part of my mind I still thought that she was underneath the spell. In fact I kept thinking that she was going to turn against us any moment and deliver all of us to Lord Zedd. I shook my head hard, to shake away my dark thoughts about her as well as saying that I didn't think of her that way at all.

"Katherine, listen to me, I do not see you that way at all. I know that you fought off the spell that Rita cast on you because I can't even sense it anymore. I do not see you as the enemy I trust you I really do." She stared at me, a cold and angry look on her face.

"Amy stop lying to me. The fact that when I first came on the team and wasn't told that you were a half alien, Zordon was your father and that your boyfriend was the Masked Rider proves to me that you didn't trust me then and you don't trust me now."

"Katherine I..." But she turned on her heel, walked to her room and slammed the door in my face.

I let out a sigh as I buried my face in my arms, Dex put one hand on my shoulder.

"She's right. I didn't trust her back then. And I was afraid that if she found out about me, you and Dad then Zedd would have used that against me somehow or he would have attacked you and you two have been through enough pain as it is. And as it turns out he knew about me and Dad all this time." I let out a moan.

"But you didn't know that he knew." Dex protested.

"But that's no excuse, I should have began to trust her from the very beginning when she told me that she was no longer underneath Rita's control. Instead I refused to see that, I was so filled with anger toward her for what she did to Kimberly and the others, I didn't even think that she could ever turn to our side."

Dex looked at me for a full minute.

"_You_ turned." Dex had been shocked when he found out that I had been a former agent of Zedd's, though he didn't ask what I had done. He didn't want to hear an explanation, he didn't want me to relive it. Even though he had no experience with dark spells that could take over a person's mind and turn them evil and make them preform horrible things, he had witnessed his fair share of people that he knew turning against him. I was really really glad that he understood and that he didn't see me as an evil person. But more so I was grateful that he still loved him, despite who I used to be. _Dex saw past the fact that I used to be evil, I need to do the same for Katherine...but not now. I think both of us need a bit of space. _I thought as I looked at the windows, I smiled as I saw Rocky chug down an entire bottle of soda with the others cheering him on. Then after he was done he let out a long and big belch, Dex raised an eyebrow and couldn't help but smile as we heard cheers coming from inside. He turned to me.

"These are the people that Zordon picked to protect the planet?" He asked. I laughed and nodded.

The next morning I woke up and was standing in front of Katherine's door, after a moment of hesitation I knocked.

"Go away."

"Katherine we need to talk."

"Why? Aren't you afraid that I'll report our conversation to my master?"

"Katherine I...I'm sorry for not trusting you in the first place, I was afraid that if I told you anything you would report everything to Lord Zedd, I...I still thought of you as the enemy. I was so sure that you were you trying to trick me when you told me that you had fought off Rita's spell because no one has ever done that. Even when you helped me get out of the dungeons, helped me in rescuing Ninjor, the Power Cions and became the new Pink Ranger, I still saw you as the servant of Rita Repulsa. But I've seen how you fight beside us now, trying to prove that you can be trusted and that you're not that same person that was underneath that spell. And that you're trying your hardest to be forgiven for all the terrible things that you were made to do. The thing is...I'm trying to do the same thing myself, I...I guess I didn't want to admit we were alike. " The door opened and I looked at Katherine's face hopefully. She looked at me.

"Are you saying that you forgive me and will start to trust me?" I nodded.

"Yes, I am. And I'll help you anyway I can so that we can get our revenge on our former master and make him pay for all the terrible things that he forced us to do." I said in a determined voice. She smiled at me.

"Okay."


	41. Chapter 41

Chapter 41

**Here is one chapter that I debated on: Should I put this up? Should I not? So I just wrote it and I'm going to post it just so see if you guys like it or not.**

I was ready for a small break from fighting tougher than most not to mention psychotic monsters of Zedd's. The guy was going all out on us and it would take the combined efforts of the Power Rangers, my powers and Ninjor and the Masked Rider to defeat one monster. Zedd was juicing them up with the power that he had stolen from me and to make matters worse**, **he didn't seem to be running out. I wasn't sure what was worse, my guilt over the whole "while he was torturing me he took all of my power, which he gave to his henchmen and monsters" orme thinking that the others secretly were blaming me for all of this souped up trouble. I would go to the cemetery for comfort from Mom and my step-dad and even from Aisha, even though they didn't tell me anything they seemed to understand my worries...er...that's what I like to think.

Thankfully, we did catch a bit of a break. Angel Grove was pretty quiet by the time all of us woke up from a night of battling souped up monsters and henchmen laughing for _no freaking reason_. _If I wasn't so tired, I'd go up to Zedd's palace and shove Goldar's laugh down his throat. _I thought to myself as I cracked open one eye and shut it again, I snuggled down into my bed wishing that the night had lasted longer. After a full hour of laying in bed and wishing myself back to being a little kid, with no responsibilities, no monsters to face and no late nights of fighting, I got up and stretched. Giving my head a quick shake, I pulled the covers away and got up and limped my way to my dresser drawer. Got some clothes, went to my closet, got my robe and began to undress. After putting on my robe and tying it securely to my front, I limped to the bathroom yawning. After my bath, I felt refreshed and went into the kitchen for some breakfast. I was a bit disappointed that Kim didn't stay longer but she did have tournaments to compete in back in Florida, we would watch them on tv and cheer her on. The plane tickets were really expensive and the boys and I would beg Dad to be teleported to Florida so we don't have to spend so much money. He would flat out refuse saying that the Teleportation System was for emergency only. Tommy pointed out that Dad had teleported Kim to Angel Grove the other day, Dad scowled down at him and said that Kim threaten never to speak to him ever again if he didn't teleport her to Angel Grove.

"So I had a valid reason for doing so." He snapped. We tried the same tactic but ended up in failure because, well, we had to speak to him if we wanted advice with our problems. Okay, so he won that round, then I asked Billy if I could, in my morphed state, possibly travel long distances, like say to Florida. Dad vetoed any tryouts though, saying that the last time I had tried to travel a long distance, I had run out of energy, collapsed and had to be bed ridden for a week. I told him that, that tryout didn't count since I couldn't remember ever preforming it. Billy and I thought that we could preform the tests ourselves, without Dad finding out. We would start small by starting out with every 2 miles.

_So far so good._

3 miles was going okay then 4 miles then 5. 6 miles was a bit taxing on me but I was determined to see how far I could go. Unfortunately at 10 miles I was taxed out and had to be teleported to the Command Center where I was laid down on the couch with a ice pack on my forehead and Dad lecturing both Billy and I.

"Only adult Eltarians can travel long distances without over stimulating themselves, and may I remind you Amy, that you are half Eltarian, which means that your power is not strong enough for that kind of long distance. And further more..."

"Dad! Dad! You're giving me a headache." I moaned as I sat up holding the ice pack to my head with a pained look on my face. Dad frowned but there was a glimmer of amusement in his eye.

"Well, I hope you've been taught a lesson the both of you. Amy, if I may suggest not trying this again until you have fully grown up." I frowned but then agreed, besides it was a bad time to fall down unconscious.

Anyway, as I stepped out of the house, I looked up at the sky. There were puffy clouds here and there and the sun was shining brightly, the perfect day to go and visit your boyfriend. Taking out my bike from the garage, I paused and pondered for a minute. _Should I take my bike or should I morph over there? __I think I'll morph over there, I've always wanted to._ But then I stopped. _Mr. Hillard and Katherine will see that my bike is still here, I better take it._ I jumped onto it then began to peddle away. I got to the end of the street and after a quick look around I morphed along with the bike and sped away.

As soon as I got to the outskirts of Leawood the bike and I materialized and peddled into town. Arriving at Dex's house Dex was glad to see me and was about to give me a hello kiss when his brother and sister poked their heads from around the corner. Dex hesitated for a split second then he shrugged his shoulders, and planted a full kiss on me. Albee and Molly gasped then began to giggle. After we separated Dex waved good bye and hand in hand Dex and I departed from the house. I was glad to see that Leawood looked peaceful too and hoped that Dregon wouldn't spoil it. Dex and I got some ice cream at the ice cream parlor at the mall and started to talk about the future, Dex was planning on returning to Edenoi and helping his people there, I had forgotten that he had a planet to return to, I told him that I really didn't know what I was going to do after I graduated from high school. It hadn't really crossed my mind. _Maybe I should think about it now._ We had just finished our ice cream and were walking around the mall when Dex stopped and froze, I looked at him in surprise.

"What's wrong?" He squeezed my hand.

"Trouble." He growled between clenched teeth. I looked around, but all I could see was people walking around the mall, sitting at tables eating, or laughing with their friends or family members. I didn't see anything...but_ I do sense something. Why is what I'm sensing feel so familiar?_ Two beams suddenly streaked through the air and slammed into both of us, I couldn't put up a shield because there were people around, and those people began to run around and scream as an insectivore appeared and began to fire more beams at us. Dex and I couldn't morph or transform, so we tried to dodge the beams the only way we could, by back flipping. Cyclopter and Double-Face appeared out of nowhere and knocked both of us to the ground during mid flip. We slammed into the ground hard, the breath knocked out of us, just as they were about to finish us Chopper raced in and fired at all the baddies but he was struck down by another alien, a short guy with horns on his head. Luckliy by this time Dex and I had leapt up, the people had ran off to hide and Dex and I could kick butt.

"Ecto Phase Activate"

"Its Morphin Time!" But before we could fully transform into our costumes something like electricity struck us! We both screamed, _Okay! I am seriously getting tired of this! _I thought to myself as I began to focus all of my anger toward the person that was seriously putting me in a bad mood! Creating a shield, I made it so that the electricity bounced off it and flew back toward whoever was ruining my day!! To my satisfaction I heard screams, and for a moment the assault stopped, I grabbed Dex and sent him a bit of healing power to him. As he recovered, I concentrated and my entire body glowed yellow, in a flash I had become the Yellow Ranger and after saying the words Dex changed into the Masked Rider! Together we both leapt at them, while we punched, kicked and dodged their blows and gave them a few of ours, I couldn't help but think about something. _Dregon was there during my beating, he was standing there watching me get tortured, did he take something from me also?_ The answer to my question was given to me when the monster unleashed a blast that Dex and I both dodged but it seemed to follow our every move! Even when we separated it split in two and nearly struck us both down! It was hard dodging that thing while Cyclopter, Double and that little guy, whose name was Gork, Dex told me later, were attacking us with all these blows and punches. _Why are they going all out on us? What is Dregon planning? _Thought Dex as he pulled out his sword and swung it in a high arc and brought it down on Cyclopter, who blocked it. I was battling Double-Face, who kept flinging those razor sharp boomerang_s_ at me that he used when Dex and I nearly had our first kiss. Every time I dodged them Double-Face would appear out of nowhere and try to sucker punch me. I'm not sure if it was me or not, but they seemed to be everywhere. And when we knocked one of them away the other four seemed to pop up and take their place. All of them soon made a small circle with Dex and I in the middle, and they fired all of their weapons, I grabbed Dex's arm, thinking that maybe we could dodge it by jumping, since I didn't think that my shield could block four blasts at the same time. So we did and I was about to morph Dex and I when we were hit from a beam that came from above us! In that split second I got a glimpse of Chopper, lying on the ground a few feet away from the circle, he appeared to be smoking from his head. Then I blinked and I found myself on the floor of a, what appeared to be a control room. I looked around, but before I could really get a grip on my surroundings, I was hauled to my feet by Double-Face, who gripped me by the arms tightly, my head was swimming and I felt as if my knees were going to give away beneath me. _That beam...it took my energy._ I began to look around wildly for Dex, but I didn't see him. My looking around was making me even more dizzy, so I stopped a minute and concentrated. My locket glowed weakly but it gave me enough healing power to stop my head from spinning, but not enough to break free from Double-Face.

"I see that you still have enough power to heal yourself, and here I thought that Zedd had succeeded in taking all of your power. He did not tell me that you had survived." The last part was snarled. I opened my eyes to see a man standing in front of me, he was wearing a golden mask and a red cape with a high collor, he had green eyes._ Those eyes._ _I saw them, hiding in the shadows on that day._ It was the eyes that I had never forgotten, the eyes that seemed to light up with laughter while I lay on the ground screaming. The eyes that burned with hatred and no remorse what so ever as they stared down at my mother while she bled to death. I was staring at Count Dregon!!


	42. Chapter 42

Chapter 42

**Originally a part of 41, but it was too long and I try to keep my Chapters to a minimum of 5 Pages.**

He seemed to know that I had recognized him for he smiled.

"So, I see that you remember me after all of these years, little half ling. You've grown I see, I can see parts of your mother within you and your father." His upper lip curled in a sneer.

"Where's Dex?"

"Ah, you shouldn't worry about your lover, he's in good hands...for now." _I hope they aren't doing anything to him. _Dregon looked at me.

"Why did you kill my mother?" I snapped. He smiled.

"You are like your mother smart, stubborn, beautiful." He reached out a hand to touch me.

"Touch me and you'll regret it." Dregon laughed.

"That's exactly what your mother said the first time we met. You've got her sharp tongue as well. Well in answer to your question Amy, is it? I killed her because she betrayed me, by running off with that fool of a wizard. But what was worse, they had you! A filthy half ling! Half Eltarian half human. But in the end he got what he deserved, forever trapped in a time warp with no way to hold or to touch his wife and daughter, I'll have to thank Rita Repulsa one day." He smiled then paused for a minute looking at me up and down.

"He shared in my pain of losing the woman that we loved, know he will know more pain when he losses his daughter." Before he could do anything, there was sounds of a battle that seemed to be getting closer and closer. Suddenly a door was blasted open and Dex appeared! He was alright!

"Don't touch her Dregon!" Dex shouted, in that split second of confusion I stomped on Double-Face's foot then preforming a round house kick and a hi kick I knocked both him and Dregon to the floor, Dex grabbed me and we both ran toward the door leaping over the fallen bodies of Cyclopter, Gork and the insectivore.

"Get them!" Screamed Dregon. I grabbed onto Dex's hand and concentrated, I was weak, I had used too much of my power fighting and Dregon had stolen most of it. But I prayed that I had enough power to take me and Dex out of this place. I morphed into a puddle of liquid! We sped forward and saw a hole in the middle of the floor. Blasts erupted around us, the Insectivore, it was behind us! We got to the hole and we shot down it, we were falling through air but we were free! But I couldn't hold my morphed state! I was forced to revert Dex and I to our normal states and immediately wished that I hadn't. The Insectivore was above us , he must have followed us. And he gaining! He fired at us, and unfortunately he was a good shot! He shot between us so that Dex and I had to let go of each other's hands. I saw him shoot at Dex, I threw up a shield, even though it was weak, it helped lessen the blast. But still I saw Dex grabbed the side of his head in pain. The Insectivore turned his gun toward me, just as he was about to fire a red beam, which seemingly came out of nowhere, shot the Insectivore and knocked him away from us! I whipped my head around, but before I could look for our rescuer I was grabbed around the waist. I looked at Dex and my mouth dropped open, there was a man sized bug holding onto Dex and he looked a bit like the Masked Rider! We landed in an warehouse where 3 other Masked Riders were waiting for us! As soon as we touched ground I turned and stared at them. Dex was still holding onto his head, I went toward him and healed him then I turned to the five Masked Riders. One of them spoke

"Greetings, Prince Dex of Edenoi, Amy Karmer of Eltar. Allow us to introduce ourselves. I am Masked Rider Super 1." Super 1 seemed to be a silver Masked Rider with a red scarf around his neck.

"I am Masked Rider Warrior Commander." He sported a green costume, a red helmet with green eyes.

"I am Masked Rider Amazon." He had a green and brown suit.

"I am Masked Rider Z Cross." He wore armor that was red and silver.

"I am Masked Rider X." He wore red armor over a black body suit and he also had large green eyes. "And we are the Masked Rider Warriors!" They all said in unison. I stared at them then I looked over at Dex, who had an excited and awed struck look on his face.

"Are these relatives of yours?" He looked at me, confusion spreading across his face, then it was replaced by laughter.

"No, no. They're people who used to be the Masked Rider before I was born, they protected Edenoi. My grandfather would tell me stories about them. How is it that—?"

"Your grandfather summoned us from our eternal sleep when he sensed that you were in a dire situation."

"So you came to help." I said. Masked Rider X nodded.

"How did you know about me?" Masked Rider Amazon told us that King Lexian had briefed them on me when he was telling them about the Insectivore. _Lexian must have sensed me also, oh I hope he doesn't alert Dad of any of this._ I thought to myself.

"Right. Well there's no time to lose, Dregon is looking for us and if he wants to fight, he'll get a fight. Amy? You have to go back to Angel Grove."

"What?!"

"I've already involved you in too many of my battles and I don't want to see you get anymore hurt than you are right now."

"Dex, I'm not going anywhere. I'm staying right here and fighting with you. I told you that I would always be by your side and I meant it." I crossed my arms over my chest and glared at him. Dex sighed.

"Oh, alright. But if worse comes to worse, I want you to go to Angel Grove round up the Power Rangers and continue the battle, I don't want this monster to come after you defenseless."

"Thanks Dex." Dex cocked his head as we were thinking up a battle plan. I looked at him worriedly.

"What is it?"

"Trouble." He had an angry look on his face. Then he focused on the plan once again.

"We could try to attack it all at once but that would put a real strain on us since outside attacks don't seem to work, he's gotta have a weak point." I thought for a minute, then inspiration struck.

"What if one of us goes inside him and attack him from the inside out."

" The inside out?" Dex asked. I nodded.

"Yeah, sometimes that would be the best way to defeat a monster, though not the easiest."

"Brilliant!" said Masked Rider Z Cross.

"But how do we do that? One of us will have to go inside the Insectivore." said Masked Rider X. Dex volunteered to be the one to go inside, he'll be able to by using the Masked Rider Super Blue to get inside. I stared at him as though he were crazy and pointed out that there was a really good chance that he'll be killed.

"You shouldn't do this."

"Amy I have to. You're too weak from all of the power that Dregon stole from you. Besides there might be a good chance that if you go in we could end up destroying you as well as the Insectivore you may not have enough power to get out." I turned away. _Why does it have to be this way? Why do we have to risk our lives each and every day with the threat of losing each other?_ Tears were streaming down my face. Dex got my hand and drew me close to him.

"Amy, I promise you that I'll be alright, then after all of this is over, we'll be able to live our lives peacefully with no threat of losing each other, with no threat of monsters or evil always getting in the way. I promise you that. But first we have to do this okay?" He said softly as he wiped the tears from my eyes. I sniffed looked at him and nodded.

"Okay." Dex said releasing me but holding onto my hand. "Everyone ready?"

"Ready!" We all said.

"Let's go! Ecto Phase Activate!"

"Its Morphin Time!" All of us meet the Insectivore out on Leawood Bay, with him was Cyclopter, Double-Face, and Gork. I was a little surprised that Count Dregon didn't join in the battle, but Dex had told me a while ago that Dregon very rarely showed himself out on the battle field. Both armies raced toward each other, weapons out and we clashed. I kicked, punched and back flipped and used my daggers to get in a few blows. Masked Rider X and Super One were battling Gork and Double-Face, I was battling Cyclopter, the others were battling the Insectivore, trying to weaken it enough so we can go ahead with the plan. But the Insectivore was powerful. Dex and I were still tired from our earlier battle with this guy, and I was low on power. But I pushed on and managed to counter blows with Double-Face and Gork at the same time. _We have to buy Dex some time if this keeps up..._ I began to dance around faking blows punches and kicks so that Double-Face and Gork both followed me, the Masked Rider Warriors followed suit, for that was part of the plan. And began to taunt the Insectivore and Cyclopter and began to lure them over to me, as soon as they got in close enough, I summoned up the last of my power and unleashed it!

"Yellow Ranger Power Blast Rotation!" A yellow stream of power flew from my hands and began to fly in a wide arc, slamming into the baddies and knocking them down.

"Dex now!"

"Masked Rider Super Blue!" He turned into a blue mass and zoomed right into the Insectivore's mouth. The Insectivore stood up and after a moment began to moan and groan holding onto its stomach. It looked like it working!! The Insectivore suddenly let out a scream as he exploded, Dex did it!! The Masked Riders and I all cheered. Cyclopter, Gork and Double-Face looked at us with incredulous looks then took off. Dex came flying out of the smoke and landed in front of me, he fell to his knees looking exhausted. I limped toward him rapidly and hugged him.

"See Amy, I–I told you that it would work." He said as I helped him up, I nearly toppled over because he was putting all of his weight on me. The other Masked Riders helped us and guided us to a resting spot where we celebrated our victory.

Later that day, King Lexian had received the good news that Dex was safe and the Masked Rider Warriors had to returned to their eternal sleep.

"Thanks for your help, we really appreciated it. It was an honor fighting beside all of you."

"The honor was ours." said Masked Rider Warrior Commander. Then they vanished.

Later, as Dex and I were sitting on the beach with the water lapping at our shoes, King Lexian made an appearance.

"Dex, Amy I just wanted to congratulate you both on a good job well done and having the strength to not give up. I'm very proud of both of you." Dex smiled at him and put one arm around as we both stood up and faced him.

"Thank you Grandfather for sending us the Masked Rider Warriors to assist us, it was an honor to fight alongside such legends."

"It was my pleasure. You too will become a legend also and someday you will have a son to whom you will tell stories about the Masked Rider and the Yellow Ranger and their adventures."

"Someday Grandfather." Dex said as he turned toward me. "Someday." Dex and I wrapped our arms around each other and kissed.


	43. Chapter 43

Chapter 43

As if we didn't have enough trouble with Rita and Zedd, Master Vile, who so happens to be Rita's dad!! just decides to come to our alien infested little city. Cripes, why is this guy here anyway? Well knowing Rita, she must've gotten tired of losing to a bunch of little kids and called in the big guns, that is so like her.

It all startedwhen Katherine, Tommy, Billy, Rocky, Adam and I were horse back riding. I, never having ever ridden on a horse in my entire life was practically choking the poor thing, I kept thinking that I was going to fall. Okay okay, so I sometimes forgot that I have these awesome powers, including telekinesis, back off already!! Rocky was busy laughing at me and pretending to scare the horse, and so help me I was going to lay some serious hurt on him with my powers when the sky above us, which had been a perfect blue, turned dark. _Not a good sign_ The ground began to shake,_ also not a good sign_. The others got off of their horses, I nearly fell off of mine. I scrambled to my feet and followed the others as they all clustered underneath a tree, the horses being spooked had taken off. Tommy tried to contact Dad to see what was going on, but he got no answer. My heart began to pound, my first thought was that Dregon had located the Command Center and had finally taken out his revenge on Dad. _Don't think that! He's alright! He and Alpha are both alright! _I took a deep breath and teleported alongside my friends, when we got to the Command Center, I was almost afraid of what I would see. But the scene before me wasn't what I expected. Everything was intact, there was no robot parts lying on the floor, no ripped consoles, no broken tube where Dad spent his days looking and watching after all of us. I froze as I looked at the tube where Dad usually was, he wasn't there!

"You guys, where's dad and why is it so dark in here?" I began to look around almost expecting to see Count Dregon step out of the shadows.

"Where's Alpha?" said Rocky, after looking around and not seeing him, he began to move so that he was behind the console and he continued his search. Billy had gone to the control panel and soon had all the lights back on. At the same time Rocky stepped out on the floor with Alpha behind him, everyone breathed a sigh, glad to see that he was alright. Billy took a step back saying that Dad should be appearing at any moment now. Which he did! I thanked god that nothing bad had happened to him. But what he said next made my entire mind go blank with shock.

"Rita's father, Master Vile has just arrived on Earth." We all stared at him for a few moments.

"Please tell me he's joking." Muttered Adam. Dad frowned at him and shook his head. _Great, just great. _Thought Tommy. _First her brother then her dad just decides to come over. Can things get any worse? _At that exact moment the alarm rang off, causing all of us to jump. Tengu Warriors attacking people at the beach!

"We should morph. No telling what we might be dealing with once we get there." Suggested Tommy. All of us nodded. We morphed expecting something bad.

At the beach, the Tengus were souped up and I mean souped up! Here I thought that they had been nearly unbeatable, now they were practically invincible!! Well almost. The others couldn't lay a finger on them and had their tails kicked all over the place. I was doing okay on my own, but then I was getting pushed around every once in a while and I knew that I couldn't keep up with just fighting with my powers. Even though I was recharged, I wouldn't be able to do this for much longer! We ended up retreating. As we landed in the Command Center, I went around healing my friends, at the same time they were all asking Dad what the heck had happened? Why were the Tengus so powerful? Dad waited until we had all settled down then he turned to Alpha who provided us with the answer.

"It seems the Tengu Warriors have ingested some sort of food that have made them almost invincible. We don't know when it'll wear off, or if it'll ever wear off."

"Fantastic." Rocky said, he rested his head on his helmet.

"We get beaten by a bunch of over grown crows." I turned to Dad.

"Okay, so if the Tengus are all souped up then that means that every monster that this Master Vile dude sends out will pack a much bigger punch." Katherine looked at me.

"Amy, I want to look forward to defending the Earth." Said Tommy through gritted teeth. I gave him a look that said _Well excuse me for breathing._

"Okay," Said Billy taking a step between Tommy and me.

"So, is there anyway that we can fight this new threat?" Dad nodded.

"There is one way, it'll help you but it's risky all the same. The Metallic Armor." Tentomon explained that the Metallic Armor was like a shield that would be fitted into our suits but the power of the Armor itself would expel a large amount of our energy so it had to be used as a last resort. We demorphed then waited rather impatiently for the process to be done, aware that Tengu Warriors, monsters or Zedd's henchmen could attack the city at any moment. I leaned against the console and looked up at Dad, he gazed down at me. I hadn't told Tommy or the others about what went on in Leawood, I didn't even tell Dad about meeting Count Dregon face to face for the first time, or finding out that Dregon had been in love with Mom when he had kidnaped her. _I wonder if Mom knew that Count Dregon had fallen for her, probably not_. _Or maybe she did and she just didn't tell Dad. I wonder if they were ever going to tell me the truth about me._

"Done." Said Alpha and at the same time the alarm rang, the Tengus were at it again,_ time for some payback_. We were about to morph when Dad once again told us to only use the Metallic Armor as _a last resort!_ We all nodded promising him, then we took off. We immediately flung ourselves into the battle. Remembering what Dad had told us, I decided to fight with weapons so I pulled out my daggers and began to slash at the Tengus whenever they were kicked, punched or thrown my way. Once again I wished for something more powerful, like a sword. _I would definitely be a match for Goldar and Zedd. _I flung a Tengu away from me and round housed kicked another one to the ground, back flipping onto another Tengus shoulders and leapt off of them as a another Tengu tried to kick me, it ended up kicking its fellow Tengu on the head. The two Tengus began to fight with each other. _Hah, no teamwork._ I turned when I heard Tommy yell, he and the others appeared to be losing several fights!

"You guys, call on the Armor!" I shouted to them. Tommy and Billy broke free of their Tengus, Katherine was on the ground while several Tengus converged on her, Rocky and Adam came to her rescue, kicking away the Tengus and helping her to her feet. We were still battling Tengus when we shouted out the words. For a split second I thought that for me the Amor would be unnecessary , since I was holding out so well. But then even I couldn't keep this up for long.

"Metallic Armor Power Up!" We all shouted. The Amor appeared on our suits and at first the Tengus didn't see a change but when all of us moved to continue the battle, a bright and blinding light came from the Armor and blinded them They were sitting ducks, blind sitting ducks and we kicked their butts big time. They took off, and my friends and I cheered. We returned to the Command Center expecting congratulations from Dad and Alpha but instead they gave us more bad news: While we had been fighting, Master Vile had located the Zeo Crystal. It was a powerful crystal that the people of —51 had hidden in the caves of the moon, so it wouldn't fall into the wrong hands, since their planet had been taken over by yours truly. Luckily it hadn't fallen into his hands yet, since it was protected by a force field that would destroy any being with just the hint of evil within it. We had to get the crystal first, before Rita or Zedd got the insane idea of using an innocent person to get past the force field and get the crystal. Luckily that hadn't happen yet, but we had better hurry. I stepped forward to volunteer. The others all stared at me.

"Look, we don't have time to argue, I should go since I know those caves. pretty well. Goldar took me to those caves a couple of times for...punishments." I forced myself not to glance away.

"What did he do?" Asked Adam after a while, I only shook my head.

"Amy, what kind of caves are there underneath the moon?" asked Tommy. Even though I didn't want to remember the cave where Goldar had taken me and wouldn't keep his hands...I shoved those thoughts away and focused.

"The caves are mostly illusion caves, it can make life like illusions appear before you. You can be completely fooled, I know I was...on a couple of occasions." I remembered several illusions that had me cowering in fear and screaming. Tommy then said that he was going to go, I protested and we got into an argument until Dad stopped it by telling me that he thought that Tommy should be the one to go, since it still seemed that I was still afraid of going into the caves. I glared up at him, after a moment I turned to Tommy and said.

"Good luck Tommy, and remember don't believe anything that you see." Tommy nodded.

"Thanks Amy." Then Alpha teleported him to the caves.


	44. Chapter 44

Chapter 44

As soon as Tommy left the alarm rang, a monster that had suckers on the end of each finger had appeared and was busy sucking out the energy of the people of Angel Grove. Truthfully, I was glad for the monster attack, I would have gone crazy just waiting around for Tommy to come back and wondering if he was succumbing to the illusions in the cave, did he meet up with Goldar or Rito? Did he have the crystal? I had to put all of these thoughts out of my head and trust that Tommy would be all right. But I couldn't help but send up a prayer. _Aisha, please protect him help, him get back to us safely. _

The monster, whose name was Globber, was a pretty disgusting dude...er..thing. I didn't _even_ want those...things to touch me. I fought them off with my daggers getting a satisfied feeling deep within me whenever I caused the creature pain. I couldn't say the same thing for the others, they were getting thrown left and right thanks to the Tengus. I tried to help them out but I could only focus on getting Globber's disgusting suckers off of me. I almost wanted Dex to appear and help us out but I knew that if he came then Leawood would be defenseless against Dregon and his souped up forces. _He must feel torn between wanting to protect the city that he loves against wanting to protect the girl that he loves...oh Dex I hope you're alright._ I went into a cork screw spin and nailed Globber in the chest and sent the thing flying. _Ha! Who's laughing now, slime ball? _I turned and was about to help out my friends when Tommy appeared! He immediately began to kick and punch the Tengus out of the way and helped Rocky and the others to their feet. Ninjor suddenly appeared behind Globber, but Globber ducked Ninjor's attack and grabbed him and began to drain Ninjor of his energy!

"No! Ninjor!" I shouted, behind me the others were shouting and racing toward Ninjor, but before we could reach him Goldar and Rito showed up!

"Outta the way!" I shouted as I focused all of my power on an attack that would knock the baddies socks off and realize their mistake of not killing me sooner. I raised one fist as I shot forward my entire power glowing with power. I had reached them but before I could unleash my power all of them vanished! Goldar was laughing in my face as he and the Tengus took off.

"Ninjor!" Shouted my friends as they reached my side. I was all ready to teleport to Zedd's palace and rescue Ninjor but Tommy stopped me, saying that we couldn't do that.

"You can't. But I can!" I spat at him angrily turning to him.

"I don't care what you say Tommy, I'm going to rescue him, who knows what they're doing to him! I won't let him be tortured like I was." I was about to morph and take off when Tommy grabbed me and began to shake me.

"Amy! Listen to me we have to think of a plan first, if we just go after Ninjor without a plan, then we'll all be killed!" I wrenched myself free from his grip and took several steps back.

"You guys think of a plan, I'll go after Ninjor myself, you can join me once you're finished." But the others grabbed me and wouldn't let me go! I struggled out of their grip and pulled out my daggers to attack them when we all found ourselves in the Command Center. Immediately Dad began to yell at me for attacking my friends and fellow rangers, and I began to yell at him that we were wasting time, standing around and thinking about plans. Especially now.

"They could be doing something horrible to Ninjor and all of you are just going to stand here and talk about a plan!" I screamed at them.

"I'm getting sick of this, in times like this action is called. I'm going. I'm sure as hell not going to let Ninjor suffer like I suffered at the hands of those monsters." I started to walk away but they all grabbed me and hauled me back, yelling at me to think about the consequences of my actions. I could wind up dead or placed underneath a spell again. I didn't care as long as I got to save Ninjor from being tortured. I began to yell at them with growing anger. Why were they doing this? Did they want Ninjor to beg for death at the hands of Zedd, Goldar, Rito and Master Vile? Did they want Ninjor to think about how easy it would be to just give up and stop fighting? To finally be taken over by madness, the madness that seemed to be growing stronger and stronger every time I had to be called before my master and suffered unimaginable pain? They were holding me down shouting at me, finally I screamed out at them.

"LET ME GO! I HAVE TO SAVE HER! I HAVE TO SAVE MY SISTER!" I broke down and began to cry. I dropped to my knees, the others released me.

"Kimberly! Kim, I'm so sorry. I made a promise that I would protect you, but I wasn't strong enough, just like I wasn't strong enough to protect mom" I buried my face in my hands and began to shake my head over and over.

"So that's what this has been about." Rocky said.

"She still feels guilty about not protecting her mom and Kim from Zedd." The others stared down at me for a few moments, then Tommy kneeled down in front of me. And placed a hand on my shoulder.

"You tried your best, you know you did. In fact we all did."

"I wasn't strong enough."

"But right now you are Amy, believe that, you are. You were even strong enough to take out that monster that looked like a jaguar that one time remember?" I sniffed and nodded.

"I've seen for myself how strong you've become. So don't doubt yourself about your strength okay? Zedd will see for himself and think twice before messing with you again." I smiled at him and he helped me to my feet. The alarm was ringing except that not one of us appeared to even hear it. Tommy looked at me.

"We're going too save Ninjor Amy, I promise you that." I nodded again.

"Let's go."

"Back to Action!" We all shouted Globber was Godzilla size, we called on the Ninja Mega Zord, Tommy was in the Shogun Mega Zord, he would be our back up. As we were fighting him Adam noticed Ninjor. He was on the rooftop of a nearby building, chains were wrapped around his body, but the strange thing was that every time we managed to hit Globber Ninjor would look as if he were being hurt by the same blows! _What's going on? What's happening to Ninjor? _We got our answer in the form of Master Vile, who appeared on the rooftop of another building and cackled. I stared at him. _And here I thought that Zedd was scary looking._ I thought to myself as I stared at Vile, the name Vile was an understatement in this case, try hideously ugly looking.

"Your friend Ninjor and my Globber have become one and the same! Whatever Globber feels, Ninjor will feel!" _Oh no! _

"Poor Ninjor!" said Katherine.

"What do we do? If we fight, we end up hurting Ninjor, but if we don't we'll get killed." Billy said, by this time Tommy had joined us and was now battling Globber.

"We just have to keep defending ourselves, if we have to share blows then so be it. We don't have much of a choice." Anger burned within me, I wanted to fling myself down onto Master Vile and gut him but the others needed me. I controlled my anger and my urge and focused it on Globber, wishing that I could us the full strength of my power against him. Rocky muttered underneath his breath, Adam's hands were shaking as he moved his control stick, Billy was staring straight ahead. I was glad that they were feeling the same way. We all heard Tommy give out a yell, and saw that Globber had stuck his suckers onto the Shogun Zord. We went to Tommy's aid but he had already abandoned ship, the Shogun Zord vanished right before our eyes. Globber turned toward us and kicked our butts and drained the energy out of the Ninja Zord. I had to hold myself back and remind myself that Ninjor was connected to this guy. _Blast it! We're losing this battle!!_ We were down and our energy was being drained.

"Get out of there!" Screamed Tommy. We had no choice. We abandoned ship and landed beside Tommy on the ground and could only watch as our Zords vanished!

Before we could even go to Ninjor and try to break him out of Globber's hold, he and Vile both vanished. _Ya know I'm getting really sick and tired of all of these disappearing acts, why don't they just stay and fight? _Globber appeared before us, normal size, and launched his suckers at us, all 10 of them. My hand shot forward and grabbed the suckers that were shooting toward me. I couldn't let him get any more stronger, I wouldn't let him get any more of my energy, Vile would be unstoppable! The others were on their knees Globbers suckers wrapped around their throats, they were getting more and more weaker. _I'm sorry Ninjor. I_ summoned up my power and unleashed it.

"Yellow Ranger Power Blast!" Yellow power in the form of electricity shot from my hands and traveled from there all the way to the monster himself, he let out a high pitched scream as he retracted his suckers and fell on the ground, writhing in agony.

"Thanks Amy." Panted Adam. He was struggling to his feet, I had dropped to one knee fatigue coming over me. Vile appeared and began to congratulate us on our ability to hold out this long.

"Too bad I can't say the same about your friend Ninjor though." I turned to my friends, sure that Ninjor was near death and begged them to forgive me.

"I had to save you guys..I-I..."

"Its okay Amy," Tommy said grimly. "You had to do it."

"Now that I have the Zeo Crystal not even you can stop me." Cackled Vile. We all froze and stared up at him._ The Zeo Crystal, I had forgotten all about it._

"That's impossible. I put the Zeo Crystal in the Ninja Mega Zord!" Shouted Tommy. I closed my eyes briefly as Vile thanked Tommy for telling him where the crystal was, then he vanished along with Globber.. All of us regrouped to the Command Center for a short rest, we were all drained and Rocky complained to Dad to stop swimming in front him, I closed my eyes and opened them but the Command Center wouldn't stop spinning. _Was this how Kim felt when she was without her Power Cion?_ Dad told all of us to get some rest, but the others refused, saying that they weren't going to rest until this was over. I could have said the same thing but I was practically dead on my feet. Billy suggested that I go home and get some rest and that he'll call me once they've found the Zords. I teleported home and flopped into bed and was instantly asleep.

It seemed that only a few moments had passed since I closed my eyes before I came to realize that the strange sound coming from beside me was my communicator. I let out a grunt as I roused myself and lifted up a heavy hand to answer it.

"Hey sleepy head, we found the Zords." For a few minutes I lay there for a minute then I leapt off the bed, limped as fast as I could to the bathroom, splashed some cold water on my face and teleported to the Command Center. I gave my head a wake up shake as Billy launched into an explanation of where the Zords were kept.

"On the planet M-51." I nodded then turned to Katherine, Tommy and Rocky who had gone to Angel Grove to see if everything was all right. It wasn't. Vile was holding a End Of the World Party down on Earth, he was going to destroy everything in 24 hours! Without wasting anytime we all morphed and flew to M-51. The planet was barren, the air was hot and stifling and I was glad that we could breath alright in the atmosphere. Billy pointed us in the direction where the Zords were. Once we got there, we saw that the they were all rusty looking. In fact all of them looked as if they had been turned to stone.

"Its only rust from the atmosphere. If we hit the Back Hatch at exact points, we should be able to break in. Now if I could only find it." He walked to one end of the Mega Zords then to the other, the others followed suit. Katherine and I helped them look even though both of us had never seen the back door of the Zords before. Heck, I had no idea that the Zords even had a back door.

"Billy! Guys! Over here I think I found it!" Shouted Rocky. We all jogged over to where he was. The door to the back of the Ninja Mega Zord had a big z in the middle of it. Billy nodded, then directed us to take our blast guns and start blasting at the corners of the door. After firing them and getting a lot of sparks and getting worried that we might be destroying the Mega Zord, Billy halted all of us, then climbing to the door and tugging and pulling we got it open. We dropped in and stood for a bit wondering which way to go, Tommy dropped down last and led us to where he put the crystal.

"This way." he said, he jogged forward, we all followed. We hadn't taken more than a couple of steps when the Mega Zord began to shake. All of us had to fight to stay on our feet.

"It looks like Vile's started the countdown." Shouted Adam.

"Come on, we have to hurry!" Shouted Tommy I morphed, slid over to everyone else who also morphed and we zoomed away.

"Turn right! Good, now Left! Down here!" We came to the crystal, materialized and stood before it.

"We have to break the connection that Vile has on the crystal." Said Billy.

"Okay, so how do we do that?" Asked Adam.

"We tap into the Morphing Grid then surround the crystal with our power, it should work." We all nodded then surround the crystal and closed our eyes and concentrated, all of us glowed, but we were still weak.

"Try to summon your power you guys." Tommy urged.

"I—I can't. I'm so tired..." Said Rocky. The others muttered agreement their knees were sagging underneath them. I focused all of my power and strength, but I've had so little rest. Suddenly I felt strength flow through me and I felt someone's hands on my shoulders. Cracking one eye I turned my head and both of my eyes flew open. _Aisha! _She smiled at me as she sent strength flowing through me, I felt it pass through me and enter Rocky, then it entered Adam, then Katherine, then Tommy, then Billy. All of us began to glow more stronger, until the crystal finally glowed with our colors then it faded, the connection was broken. All of us opened our eyes and took a step back, I turned to thank Aisha but she had already left. Tommy's communicator beeped.

"Globber is back, and he's attacking the city!" Shouted Tentomon.

"On it Alpha." Said Tommy. We leapt into our respective cockpits, Tommy jumped into the Shogun Mega Zord and we flew toward earth. Once there began to kick Globber's butt, even though we were hurting Ninjor, we had to weaken it. Alpha had also told us that after doing some research he had found that Globber had a weakness. Sunlight! Alpha had been working on trying to find a way to reverse the spell that Master Vile had placed that made the sky go all dark. Finally above us, sunlight shot through the clouds! Globber screamed as the sunlight blinded him for a moment, we continued to lay it on him.

"I'm here rangers!" Shouted Ninjor, he came flying out of nowhere and launched himself at Globber, Ninjor was free of him! All of us stepped back so that Ninjor could exact his revenge on him. After a few minutes, we had to finish him. Ninjor morphed into his Super Mode. We all got the swords all powered up and 1..2..3! Globber was destroyed! All of us cheered and preformed victory dances. At the Command Center we thanked Alpha with hugs and kisses for finding out Globber's weakness, we all hugged Ninjor, really glad to have him back and that he was no longer connected to that monster. We all apologized that we had to hurt him, but he waved us all away saying that he accepted our apologies.

"I'll just be glad to get some rest." He said as he stretched then he grabbed his shoulder and rubbed it.

"They didn't hurt you did they?" I asked. He shook his head.

"No, all they did was steal my energy, but even that wasn't too painful." I frowned, I was pretty sure that they had hurt him...he just didn't want to tell us. He had told me that while Goldar was "having his way" with me he had heard my screams from all the way to the Throne Room and he had tried desperately to shut them out but was unsuccessful. I felt sorry for him. _He must have tried to get out of that jar and save me but couldn't, I hope that in his mind I have stopped screaming. _I raised my hand and healed him then turned to the others, because they were wondering where all of that extra power had come from. I explained to them that Aisha was there and she had helped us. The others were all silent.

"I had my eyes open a crack and I didn't see anyone." Rocky said.

"Yeah, me either." said Adam.

"How come you could see her Short stuff but not us?" I wasn't sure if Rocky was angry or surprised. I shrugged my shoulders.

"I–I'm not sure."

"I wish we could have seen her." Said Billy softly, Tommy put a hand on his shoulder he was nodding in agreement. The boys, including Alpha, Ninjor and Dad were silent for a moment then Tommy broke the silence by saying.

"Well, at least its good to know that she's watching over us." Everyone nodded in agreement. Rocky wanted to go back to the park and continue horse back riding. My mouth dropped open and I stared at all of them, as Ninjor bade us good-bye and took off to get some well deserved rest. _They're joking right? After all that they still what to move around and stuff? _I shook my head and ignored their exasperated cries for me to join them as I teleported myself to my room and flopped into bed and immediately fell asleep.


	45. Chapter 45

Chapter 45

Today is Katherine's birthday. _Okay, alright. So what do I get her? _As I was walking back to the house after visiting my mother and step father I was planning on going to the mall and window shop, when my communicator beeped. _Darn, and here I thought it was going to be a peaceful day._ Ever since Vile appeared, we had our work cut out for us. Having to fight his monsters and Rita's and Zedd's I was coming to dread hearing my communicator beep. Several times we've managed to keep the battles to normal size, since the Zords needed some work and I was busily conserving my power so we can finish the monster off in one blow. Because quite frankly, I was getting tired of Vile already and would wish many times that he would leave..._I wish that all of them would leave and let us live our lives in peace._ But that wasn't going to happen anytime soon, speaking of which it still weirded me out that after a near catastrophic day, the people of Angel Grove would resume their normal every day lives. Even though I was used to fighting monsters everyday, it was still a bit weird that I could act normal and think normal after everything that I would go through. Anyway answering my communicator, I was surprised to hear Rocky's voice. _Dad should have a talk with him. Although the communicators are a lot like phones._

"Hey Short stuff. In case you're wondering if we're going to do anything for Kat's birthday, we are. The other guys are planning to take Kat to the carnival that's coming to town this weekend. All of us are asking our parents for extra spending money."

"Really!? That's very cool Roc."

"Yeah, Tommy thought it up but don't tell Kat okay?"

"No worries there."

"Thanks Short stuff." I continued to limp home. Later I called Dex and we talked for about an hour and a half and I made him promise to call me if he needed any help in fighting Dregon's forces. He refused telling me that I shouldn't get myself involved.

"But I am involved, I've been involved ever since me and my mother crash landed on this planet. And I would still be involved even if I weren't my parent's daughter or a Power Ranger. I'm involved because...well...I'm the girl that you love, Dregon wants to cause you nothing but pain, and what could be more painful then seeing the person that you love with all of your heart being taken away from you. I want to protect you from feeling that pain and I will help and protect you Dex Stewart no matter what you say. You got that!"

"Okay, okay. I'll call you if I need any help. I promise." I smiled into the phone. _Even super heroes need help every once in a while._

That weekend Tommy had blindfolded Kat and take her to the fair grounds which was near the edge of Angel Grove. We steered Kat to the front entrance and removed the blindfold. She let out a happy gasp as we all shouted Happy Birthday to her, she looked over the fair grounds and took in everything. She hugged us tightly, thanking us for a wonderful gift. Then all of us ran up to the ticket booth and entered the park, soon we split up and began to ride on all of the rides and eat the food that was being sold on the stands. Mom had began a savings account for me after I had gotten out of the hospital so I was slightly well off, but I was planning on getting a job and adding to the account , as soon as I finished with school and all. Kim had sent a birthday card to Katherine which made me realize that she had forgiven Katherine for all that she had done. _Hmm I knew Kim and the others could never hold a grudge. _I thought to myself as I threw a baseball at a row of bottles and was able to knock a couple to the ground. All of us weren't even thinking about Master Vile, Zedd or Rita today. Our communicators hadn't gone off all day, we were finally getting a chance to relax and act like teenagers. For the entire day I felt free and like a normal person. If only that feeling had lasted. We were walking back to the car laughing it up and joking with each other when we all noticed that the air around us began to shimmer and waver. _Oh no._ all around us people were staring at the air and looking around in confusion, then it happened. It happened in a split second, all of us didn't realize anything had changed until we had looked at each other. My mouth dropped open as I looked at Rocky, he...he was a little kid!! A...and so was everybody else! My friends, the people! Everyone! The others were looking down at themselves and touching themselves, as if they needed to feel proof that they had been turned into little kids! Tommy was the first to speak.

"We've been turned into kids."

"But how? We destroyed the Rock Of Time! Didn't we?" Said Adam.

"It has to be Vile's doing." Growled Rocky. Katherine and I were staring at them in confusion.

"Y–you mean this has happened before?" Katherine asked. The boys turned to her and nodded.

"We'll explain once we get to the Command Center, Zordon should have an answer as to how Vile transformed everyone into little kids." We took off to find a safe place to teleport. All around us the...kids were busily walking around in confusion. Wondering how in the world they got there and where were their parents? I know that as super heroes we had to help them but they would have to wait. We found a couple of bushes and crouched behind them and tried to teleport, but we couldn't! _What the hell? First we're turned into kids and now this?_ After trying to contact Dad several times with no success, Billy looked up at all of us and suggested that we try to go the Command Center by ourselves.

"Okay, I'll try to morph us all there."

"Thanks Amy, if you need to make a few stops to rest then do so. Okay?" Said Tommy. I nodded again. It was freaky, looking at my friends as little kids. We all stood up and grabbed each others hands as I concentrated, morphed all of my friends into a big silver puddle and zoomed off. As we zoomed down the road heading toward in the direction of the Command Center we heard police sirens in the distance, heading in the direction of the fairgrounds. _Dad must have called the police to go and pick up the kids, I hope that they'll be all right._ We hadn't gotten far but we made it to some woods, I was getting tired and materialized my friends in the middle of a clearing. I leaned against a tree panting. Adam and Rocky were looking around, making sure that no one had seen us. Tommy was also looking around but he wasn't looking for people, he was looking at the trees and the clearing and so was Billy.

"What is it?" asked Katherine. Both boys had worried looks on their faces.

"These trees, they weren't so many before and the mountains over there, I don't know it all looks different somehow." I looked beyond the trees and around my gaze traveling slowly over everything, I had never been out here before so I didn't see any difference but something did _seem different. _We were snapped out of our sightseeing when we heard the sound of cawing behind us turning we became aware that we were surrounded! Rito stepped forward until he was standing in front of the line of Tengus he pulled out his sword.

"Ha! Easy pickings. Get the traitors! Kill the others!" He shouted. The Tengus all leapt forward and converged on us. My friends and I clearly weren't thinking as we assumed battle stances and flew at the Tengu Warriors and Rito. Not at all, but hey, ain't nothing that was going to change that. It took us about 30 seconds to realize that we were losing. Tommy and the other boys were being thrown aside like rang dolls, while being punched, kicked, clawed and overall beaten up. While Katherine and I were left to fend for ourselves. Luckily I was able to fend off most of them with my powers and dance around, keeping out of reach of the Tengus claws and Rito's sword. Although I did get cut here and there.

"Hold still! I promise you that if you hold still "Ed" will make your death long and sweet." Said Rito as he tried again and again to grab me, or pin me to a tree using his sword. Out of the corner of my eye, Katherine, who had been following me step for step, had been caught. I saw her being slapped across the face and blood come out of the cuts that the Tengu had given her.

"Katherine!" I shouted. In that split second, Rito had slashed at me, I yelped as I felt the sword graze my skin. I was grabbed by my ponytail and lifted off of my feet. Turning my head, even though it was painful, I saw to my horror that a group of Tengus were busily pounding on my friends.

"No!"

"Tommy!" Just as they were about to take us away, a car and a bug that was riding a motorcycle came flying toward us. Dex! Magno! Chopper!

"Get your hands off her!" He leapt off Chopper as the two vehicles began to fire at the Tengu Warriors. Dex kicked Rito in the face and managed to catch me.

"I see you're practicing your landings after all." He said. I threw my arms around him and hugged him.

"Dex! Oh, I'm so glad." He quickly set me down and darted toward Rito again punching him over and over, the Tengu Warriors were busily ducking and flying at Magno and Chopper.

"Hey! I just got a new paint job!" Shouted Chopper angrily as a Tengu scratched him, he sent the Tengu flying with a body slam. Magno was busily spinning and kicking up dust blinding the Tengus then she would run them over. I ran over to my friends, Katherine was soon beside me. They were in pretty bad shape all of them were sporting bloody lips, broken noses, scratches that bleed. I saw that Billy's mouth was red with blood, Rocky was coughing and holding onto his leg grimacing with pain. Tommy was holding onto his nose. Adam looked up at me.

"So this is what it feels like." He muttered as he tried to stop the bleeding coming from his arm. _I never wanted any of you to know what it felt like._ I thought to myself as Dex, Chopper, and Magno stood in front of us facing the baddies.

"Ready?" Shouted Dex, pulling out his electric saber and powering it up.

"Ready!" shouted Magno and Chopper. The both of them powered up also.

"Now!" All three of them shot lasers at them, Rito and the Tengus all screamed.

"Retreat." One of them screamed, then they vanished.

"Thank god." Said Tommy. All three of them turned to us, Dex knelt beside me and I leaned against him.

"What happened? Why are all of you like this?" He asked as he stroked my head. I didn't answer, I just wanted to stay in his arms but I roused myself and looked at him.

"We have to get to the Command Center, maybe Dad will tell us what's up." I went to my friends and held out my hands over them, they glowed and a golden light fell upon them. Soon their cuts and the blood all vanished. My friends were healed and they stood up.

"Thanks Amy and thank you Dex for coming to our rescue. Magno, Combat Chopper." Said Tommy.

"Hey no problem. We got a call from Alpha, said that the Teleportation System was out of whack but that he was fixing it."

"He saw that you guys were in trouble but he couldn't teleport you out of harm's way." said Magno.

"So he and Zordon sent us. Good thing too. " Chopper said.

"Alpha should have the Teleportation System up and running by now." Dex said. We told Dex what had happened and Tommy explained about the time when he, Billy, Adam, Rocky, Kim and Aisha were turned into little kids by Lord Zedd who used the Rock Of Time but Alpha managed to turn them back to normal and they were able to destroy the Rock.. There couldn't be another one could there? Before we could discuss it further we were teleported to the Command Center.

"Rangers are you all right? Oh, what those Tengus did to you was just horrible. I'm sorry I couldn't get the Teleportation System fixed and I was trying to contact Ninjor but I couldn't get through and I–..." Alpha was flustered.

"Alpha, Alpha we know that you did your best. Its okay. See? We're all right thanks to Amy and Dex here." Chopper cleared his throat.

"And to Chopper and Magno." Said Tommy with a nod to them. I was staring up at Dad, I wasn't sure if it was me or the effect of whatever had been placed on my friends and I, but from my height right now, was suddenly reminded of when I had first met him. Dad looked down at me for a few moments, then giving himself a shake he thanked Dex for getting the message and rescuing us. Dex nodded at Zordon. Dad began to explain what was happening.

"Somehow, time has been reversed. The earth is now in the time period of 5 years ago. The Power Rangers never existed five years ago."

"So we can't morph?" Tommy said. Dad shook his head

"We don't know how long this will last, but it can be fixed. It just takes time." I turned to Dex.

"Is Leawood affected also?" He looked me.

"Yes, it is. Luckily I was as the Masked Rider when the time period changed so I'm unaffected." He said and as if to prove it he changed back into Dex Stewart. I looked up at him, he looked down at me.

"You are welcome to stay in Angel Grove until things get resolved Dex." said Tentomon. Dex smiled and thanked him.

"So who's going to protect the earth until the time period is fixed?" asked Billy. Alpha and Dad looked at each other then turning to us they told us about other rangers that they had heard about. I stared at them._ Other rangers? There are more of us out there? Too awesome! _

"They are the Aquatar Rangers hailing from the planet of Aquatar. I've already contacted them, and they said that they would be glad to help the Power Rangers of earth." _Even more awesome. People from other planets have heard about us. _Dex said that he would help too, Dad greatly appreciated it.

"They should be arriving soon." Dad said. He would alert us to their arrival, while the others stayed in the Command Center discussing the Aqua Rangers Dex and I went outside and hand in hand walked around the outside of the Command Center. Both of us were silent. I was thinking about my mother, she was alive five years ago. Joy filled me. My mother was alive! I know it! I feel it! I wanted to tear myself free and run to my old house just to see...I wanted it to be true...then I could see the them, my mother and my family. Together, whole and undamaged...to hold them. But I kept myself sill and continued to walk by Dex's side.

"Heh, ya know its funny. I've always longed for the day when we can be together when Dregon was no longer in the picture. That day has finally come, the thing is. I don't know weather to be happy or sad. I should be happy since we don't have to contend with Dregon and we don't have to worry about losing each other in these wars that we're fighting. But on the other hand there's this whole...thing, We can't really be together in public because it would look too strange for a 10 year old and a 16 year to be holding hands and kissing...and when this is all fixed...we—we're going to have to go back to before and..." He had a frustrated look on his face. I looked up at him and leaned against him.

"C–could we just focus on the now Dex and not—not think about what we have to go back to?"

He looked down at me, then he went down on his knees and placing his hands on my shoulders, he kissed me full on the mouth. _Why do we have to go through this? Is it because I'm half Eltarian? Is it because my mother is a human that Dregon fell in love with? Is this punishment? Does Dex wish that he had never met me? If he had never met me then he wouldn't have to go through this._ As if reading my thoughts Dex wrapped his arms around me and kissed me harder. _No, he's glad that he met me. And...and I'm glad that I am my mother's daughter._


	46. Chapter 46

Chapter 46

Dex and I were still kissing when we heard a voice behind us.

"Ahem." We both broke apart and turned to see Rocky.

"T–the Aqua Rangers are here, they're going to meet us over by the lake. Alpha said that he will teleport us all over there to meet them." He looked uncomfortable for a minute and had been looking in the other direction while he was telling us all of this. He glanced toward us and seemed relived that Dex and I had stepped back from each other.

"Okay, so let's go." Dex said. We made our way back to the Command Center. Excitement coursed through me, I was looking forward to meeting these rangers from another planet. _Who would ever think that there were other rangers? Other super heroes out there in the universe? I didn't even think about the prospect of there being others, even after meeting Dex and finding out that he was the Masked Rider and a fellow super hero...it just never crossed my mind. _Underneath the excitement was longing and impatience. I wanted the meeting to go by fast so that I can go home and be with my mother and my family. Inside I was fidgeting, I was sure that I was going to miss them and this could be my one and only chance to see them. I was afraid that if I didn't go to home soon they would disappear.

_Come on! Come on! Let's teleport already!_ I took a couple of deep breaths, struggling to calm down, knowing that if my friends found out they would call me selfish. Tentomon pressed a few more buttons and after nodding a bit and told us that we needed to bring the Aqua Rangers to the Command Center so that everything could be explained to them. We all nodded. I wanted to shout at him. _Okay we get it , can we go now?_ But I restrained myself. Finally we were teleported to the lake, _finally. _I thought to myself as the Aqua Rangers appeared before us. They were Delphine, the White Ranger, Aurico, the Red Ranger, Tideus, the Yellow Ranger(a male yellow ranger?? Well stranger things have happened.) Cestro the Blue Ranger, and Corcus, the Black Ranger. We all introduced ourselves, they told us that they were honored to help us out and that they had brought their own weapons and would use them along side ours. Dex was looking forward to fighting beside them. I was going crazy with impatience to get home when things took a turn for the worse. First Vile sends a monster, then Goldar and Rito down to interrupt our meeting and Dad finds out that there is a bomb outside of the Command Center. Panic flowed into me like waves, _Dad! Tentomon!_ I was about to use my powers to teleport to the Command Center and try to save them when Rocky grabbed me and shoved me to the ground as fireballs and lasers flew over our heads. I was hauled to my feet and given a rough shove.

"Go and hide." Shouted Dex. Anger and indignation went through me. _I do not hide from my enemies._ I spun and took on a combative stance, ready to fight. Dex, who was busily fighting off Rito while the Aquatar Rangers were fighting off Goldar and the monster, turned toward me and shouted.

"Amy! What are you doing? Hide hurry, before they catch you."

"Dex is right. You can't fight not right now. I know its sucks but you won't be able to use your powers for very long." Shouted Billy as he began to pull and yank my arm, I didn't want to hide! I wanted to fight!

"No! I want to stay and fight!"

"Stay and die then!" Goldar appeared in front of me and raised his sword high and brought it down on me.

"Amy! Masked Rider Super Blue!!" Screamed Dex, in a flash he sped toward me and scooped me and Billy up and we took off. We landed a good distance away from the battle. After we had landed I was surprised to see that the others were there. Tommy ran toward me as soon as all of us had materialized, he grabbed me and pulled and yanked me to the others while Dex took off, sword out heading straight for Goldar. Tears of frustration were in my eyes as I turned to Tommy.

"Tommy, I'm sorry. I just..." But he only looked at me with sympathy in his eyes. He squeezed my shoulder. I could see the same feeling in his eyes and in his face, in fact in all of them I could see the frustration of wanting to fight but unable to do so. _If we even tried to help, we'll be killed._ I let out a sigh already wishing that I was normal once again then I could fight at Dex's side,_ but for now we run_. And we ran and hid. Several Tengus found us but I gave them a very painful flying lesson and we were safe. We turned our attention to the Command Center and contacted Dad who told us to stay where we were, and that Alpha was taking care of the bomb. The others had to hold me and Billy back and tell us that Alpha would succeeded in disarming the bomb and that they can take care of themselves without us getting in the way.

"I don't get in the way!" I shouted angrily.

"I know that Amy, but if we go up there we will be. We need to stay down here so that Alpha can fully concentrate then after he's done saving the Command Center and Zordon we can go up there and you can yell at the both of them all you like." Said Rocky. I stopped struggling, Billy had stopped a long time ago and he had an angry look on his face, his hands were balled into fists. _I have to believe that dad and Alpha will be alright, that they'll be alive when we go back to the Command Center_. After taking a couple of deep breaths I managed to calm myself down. We all turned and watched the battle. Dex preformed the splits in mid jump taking out two Tengus, Delphine took out her sword and began to slash at the Tengus around her the other Aqua Rangers were fighting the monster and, call me crazy, but they were doing pretty good by themselves. I mean they were kicking butt, rather easily I might add as the monster let out a scream as he was struck by Cestro. In just a few minutes all of the Tengus were all down and had taken off but Goldar was busily battling Dex. Dex kept getting in his way, Goldar was trying to get to us but no matter how hard he tried to push Dex out of the way, or get around him Dex was there to prevent him from reaching us. The monster, like Goldar, wasn't having much luck either. Rito and the monster's butts were getting kicked all over the place. Rito was sent packing, Goldar followed suit but not before he shouted

"You can't protect them forever." The monster was all by itself now and it looked pretty uneasy. We all began to shout to the Masked Rider and the Aqua Rangers to finish it before it could grow big. They complied. We all ran toward them and Dex hugged me and asked if I was okay, which I said that I was, he seemed to forgive me for nearly getting myself killed earlier. Tentomon called. He and Dad were all right. I breathed a huge sigh of relief. _Oh thank god!_ Tento had managed to disarm it and destroy it. We all teleported to the Command Center and told Da—uh...Zordon that we were glad that they were safe. Now that the battle was over for the time being anyway...we could all go home to our families. _Mom!_ I had forgotten about her! I bounced up and down on my toes with excitement. _Hurry and teleport us!!_ After we once again welcomed the Aqua Rangers to earth and Angel Grove and thanked them for helping us out we were finally finally!! Teleported home!!

I was teleported to the front of my old house. I stared up at it Excitement coursing through me. The front door was open, Mom would usually leave it open so fresh air could flow through the house. The windows were all fixed, the lawn looked green, the flowers that Mom had planted long ago were alive and blooming. The entire house looked as if it hadn't seen that horrible day! I raced up the stairs eager to see everyone, to see the inside of the house, to sleep in my own bed, to see my old room, to forget everything that had happened. I ran into the living room and looked around.

"Mom? Dad?" There was no answer. My heart began to pound. _Were they really alive? Or is this an illusion of some sort?_ I ran into my brothers office which was in the next room. The office was cluttered as always and the computer was on, I ran into the kitchen expecting to see Mom there. But I didn't see anyone. I stared around the kitchen wanting to cry. Refusing to believe that...that..._no Mom is alive I know it_.I began to run from the kitchen to check upstairs when the door that led into the backyard opened and...my mother stepped through it. She had a frozen bag of beans in her hand.

"Oh, Amy I'm so glad you're home. Could you help me in the kitchen please? " I didn't hear her, I was just standing there and staring at her. I could feel tears breaming and threatening to fall down my cheeks, happiness was overflowing through me, I took a step toward her. But I was afraid that if I reached her she might disappear. She looked up as she was putting the beans in a pot and turning on the stove and putting the pot on the burner. She came around the counter and looked at me.

"Honey, What's wrong? Did something happen?" She took a step closer toward me, I wanted to take another step forward, but my body was like stone.

"Why are you crying?" I _was_ crying, but I didn't notice the tears. Mom looked at me, then she put her arms around me and hugged me and I fell into the hug silently weeping even though the tears were already flowing. I hugged her tightly. She was real!! She wasn't an illusion, she was real!! _Mom!_ _You're alive!! Oh, I'm so glad!!_ Tears were streaming down my face as I held my mom. I didn't want to let her go, _she might..._ I never realized how much I missed being hugged by my mom before. I felt comforted for the first time in my life, _all those hugs that Kim and the others gave me, they weren't like mom's hugs, they didn't make me feel safe or protected. _After another few minutes I forced myself away from my mother and begin to help her by putting away the dishes and helping out in making lunch. My brothers and sisters came home to eat and so did my step...I mean my dad. I surprised all of them by hugging them and swinging them by their hands around the kitchen. My sisters raised their eyebrows, while my brothers tried to get out of my grasp with embarrassed looks on their faces. I wanted to shout and dance my joy at having my family back underneath one roof, whole and alive. I spent as much time with them as I could not wanting to let them go, not wanting to let them out of my sight for even a second, afraid that they would disappear. At the end of the day I happily retreated to my room and explored it, happy at seeing my stuffed animals on my bed, my books along the wall, my sisters beds positioned strategically around the room so the room didn't look too crowded and small. I flopped onto my bed with a happy sigh. I grabbed my Snoopy doll and hugged it tightly to my chest then leapt off the bed and began to dance and spin laughing and crying at the same time. Finally I flopped down onto the floor breathing hard, I wiped the tears from my eyes and waited until I caught my breath then I got up and went downstairs to join my family as they sat around the living room and watched tv.

Later that night I snuggled underneath my covers with Snoopy in my arms looking forward to school the next day, I couldn't wait to tell my friends about my family.

All thoughts about Master Vile, all that had happened to my friends and I were pushed to the back of my mind and forgotten.


	47. Chapter 47

Chapter 47

I arrived at school and didn't notice the other kids staring at me while I hopped and danced across the yard. While I had been getting dressed a thought had formed in my mind, so I had walked over to the mirror. I froze and stared down at my foot_ can it be?_ Still watching my feet I continued to walk forward. _I walked! I walked! Not limped! But walked! _I spun around happily laughing at my discovery and my sheer joy! Unfortunately I woke up my sisters who yelled at me for waking them up so early, but I only smiled at them and apologized. Then I went to the mirror, turned my back to it and pulled the back of my shirt up. Craning my neck back I saw to my astonishment and joy that the scars were gone!! My sisters asked me what was up and I told them the truth...the half truth actually.

"I thought I had something on my back, but its gone now." I had dressed then gone down the stairs singing, I had entered the kitchen and hugged my mom tightly. She turned away from the dishes and laughed as she smiled at me.

"What's all this?"

"Nothing. I just wanted to say good morning." _And to say that I'm glad that you're alive. _I danced a few steps away from her and beamed up at her, then I spun once and began to dance in front of her.

"When did you learn how to dance?" Mom asked.

"A couple of my friends showed me." I said as I expressed my happiness of seeing my mother and being with my family. She smiled then told me to eat and that she'll drop me off at school. I saluted her and pranced to the cupboards, took a bowl down, got a spoon and the cereal box, opened it and poured some cereal into the bowl. Someone had already taken out the milk pouring milk on my cereal and putting the milk back into the refrigerator I took my bowl of cereal to the table and happily ate it. Mom said that she was going to run some errands and asked if I wanted to come with her. Nodding my head, she told me that she'll pick me up after school. I squirmed happily already looking forward to the end of the day.

After finishing my cereal and rinsing my dish I ran up stairs to grab my things, _I still remember where I would put everything._ I pranced downstairs and out the front door where Mom was waiting for me in the car, hopping into the car we drove off. At Angel Grove Elementary , the lawn and parking lot was over crowded with kids being dropped off by their parents or their brothers or sisters.. My mom looked at the line of cars so I suggested that she drop me off at the curb across from us. Complying she dropped me off, I hugged her tightly and gave her a kiss on the cheek goodbye then hopped out of the car. I turned back and waved to my mom who waved back as she drove away. I turned and stared up at the school then around the school yard looking for my friends, _I can't wait to tell them the good news!_ Seeing the school bus I jogged toward it thinking that they were coming by bus. After a bunch of kids piled off my friends got off as well. They made their way toward me and I rushed up to them and hugged them then I began to tell them about Mom and my family being alive and my being happy again. But they tried to tell me about the problems that the Aquatar Rangers were running into but I didn't listen, I didn't want to listen. Tommy was going to tell me something but the bell rang and we had to get to class.

All throughout the school day, I stared up at the clock willing it to go faster so I could be with my mother. The others once again tried to tell me about Master Vile and the monsters that were roaming around Angel Grove but I ignored them. I wanted to focus entirely on my happiness and my mother not on Master Vile or Lord Zedd and his cronies. Besides I don't have to fight anymore, I could spend lots and lots of time with my mother and my family,_ and that's what I'm going to do_.

For the next few days I lived my life completely ignorant of the problems that Angel Grove and the Aquatar Rangers were having. Time and time again the others gave me a stern talking to, and I pretended that I was taking them seriously but as soon as I got out of the Command Center I would act like I didn't have a care in the world.

One day Billy and Tento came up with a device that would revert all of us to our normal states. When I asked about the Earth, Billy said that Dad and Tento were still working on that but they should come up with a solution soon. I breathed a sigh of relief, glad that the earth wasn't going to be returned to it's normal time period, which meant that I could spend more time with my family. Billy was still testing it and working out the kinks.

"But it should be ready in no time." I was looking forward to being my 16 year old self again, not being able to fight off Goldar or Rito was getting tiresome. Billy needed a bit of help on the device and asked me to come to the Command Center. Arriving there I saw that Billy had an angry look on his face. I let out a silent sigh and struggled not to roll my eyes. Dad was glaring down at me, Alpha was nowhere to be seen and neither was the device.

"Amy—" Billy started but I interrupted him.

"Billy, I know what you're going to say and yeah I know that I need to focus on the situation right now and I am focusing."

"No, you are not focusing. The only thing that you are focusing on right now is your family and pretending that our problems don't exist."

"Our problems don't exist! Not right now anyway, look it'll be a long time before we have to face them, until then we can just ignore them and live our lives like normal kids for once without having to deal with all of the craziness that comes with being a ranger. What's so wrong with that?" Billy exploded his eyes flashed with an anger that I have never seen before.

"EVERYTHING! YOU CAN'T JUST IGNORE SOMETHING LIKE THIS AMY!! THE AQUA RANGERS ARE HAVING A TOUGH TIME AS IT IS FIGHTING MASTER VILE'S MONSTERS, LORD ZEDD HAS COME AFTER US A NUMBER OF TIMES AND NEARLY KILLED US. IF IT WASN'T FOR THE MASKED RIDER BEING THERE FOR US..." He was breathing hard and glaring at me. Dad spoke calmly but I could tell that he was struggling to control his own anger.

"Amy, if we ignore our duties then we have no chance of returning the earth to its normal time period. If that doesn't happen then the Aquatarians will be stuck on earth and that could prove dangerous for them. Dex may not see his human family again, he'll have to stay in Angel Grove, now I know that seems like a good thing to you, but deep down I know that you know that's the worst thing. You and Dex could never be truly together, you would be missing out...like I did..." I was trying to fight back the tears, sadness mixed with anger welled up inside me threatening to spill out.

"I don't want you to go through that." He said softly. I turned my head away, my hands clenched into fists. _I don't want the earth to be returned and the people returned to normal, that would mean...mom...no! I don't want that! I don't!_ But Dex was missing his family, and I would see him looking toward Leawood whenever I would visit him. He would be outside of the Command Center sitting on the ground and staring into the distance with a look that I knew all too well. _Dex is going through the pain of losing his family again and I wish I could do something for him but..._ I was torn between my duty as a ranger and my wish to keep my family alive, I turned and looked at the both of them, tears were flowing down my cheeks and my voice kept cracking.

"Don't the both of you understand?" I snapped angrily at them.

" For the first time in my life...I–I feel safe, I feel sane. I can sleep at night for god's sake's. I don't feel like...like I'll be driven crazy by all of this guilt that I have for...The nightmares that would plague me and that would cause me to wake up screaming are...gone...I don't want to go back to that...I can't! I won't!" I began to cry bitterly. Billy and Dad both watched me not saying anything. After a few minutes I whispered to Billy.

"Is there anyway that we can...tell them? Can we take them with us when we figure out how to turn the earth... ?"

"I don't know." I glared at Billy, hatred flaring up within me, I wanted to spring myself onto him and make him say that yes, we can take my family back with us...but not even we the Power Rangers can do that. I looked at him and nodded, then I teleported myself out of the Command Center and spent the rest of the day walking around and crying.

Dad wished to be left alone for a while, so Billy left. Dad continued to stare into space, thinking about his Anna and how the both of them were glad to see each other once again. Dad had been careful not to mention me being a Power Ranger or about Lord Zedd or that Count Dregon was no longer in the picture. Anna still thought that the time frame was from all those years ago when we first crash landed on earth. And even though Dad wanted to tell her everything he was afraid of the damage it would inflict on her. So he had said nothing, only looking and acting relived when mom had told him that I had gotten my memory back and that she was glad that I didn't suffer any serious injuries. And in turn Dad had told her what had happened on Eltar and the war with Rita and her armies...and the end result. After several minutes of silence and of staring at each other mom had looked up at Dad, he could see the tears in her eyes.

"So there's no way that you can...?" She had asked. Dad had sighed heavily and shook his head struggling with his own emotions of longing and sadness.

"I'll be there for her and you, you know that right?" said Dad.

"It's not the same." Said Mom then she broke down. Dad watched her then he concentrated. He levitated her. Mom put her arms around the front of Dad's tube and leaned her forehead against the glass, tears were still falling down her cheeks and sliding down the glass of the tube.

"I've never stopped...I've never stopped loving you." She whispered.

"Nor I you." Dad whispered. Mom left after a few minutes and Dad continued to stare at the spot where she stood, then he bowed his head and began to cry..

A few days later after coming to terms with...what Billy said I really began to focus. I helped out Billy and Tento with the device even though they had Dex, Cestro and dad. I...I just needed something to take my mind off of what I was going to go through once the earth was restored. I also helped out the others in keeping the Aquatar Rangers stay hydrated and in fighting form. I refused to think about going back to the guilt, the sadness and the loneliness. Thankfully the others didn't mention any of it. Still, there were some things that I would miss about being a 10 year old. Like throwing water balloons and playing pranks on my friends...it...it was fun. I just wish that..._Snap out of it Amy! Wishing never does anything! You have to act, but in this case you can't act_. _Not on this wish_.

Billy's invention was complete and he told us something that I found a bit weird. The device would be powered by our Power Coins. I hesitated of course._ I had nearly gotten myself killed trying to get my Power Coin back if anything happens to it, I swear I'm going to kill you Billy._ Meeting at a local power plant outside of the city, I kept glancing over my shoulder expecting for enemies to rain down on us from above, but so far nothing. I didn't really want to give my Power Coin away, even if it powered the machine that would turn all of us back to normal..._heh...I've grown attached to a piece of metal_. I thought to myself as I handed the Coin to Billy. I couldn't help but question Billy's choice of location. It was too open and too solitary, Zedd and the others could be hiding anywhere. I kept a sharp eye out while the others all handed over their Coins to Billy, who put all them in the device and flipped a switch. Setting it on the ground he told us that it should be tested out first, so if it works on him then we can all have a turn. All of us stayed a good 3 feet from Billy and the device as it began to rumble and shake a bit, then it released a shower of lights that were our signature colors all over Billy. All of us waited , hoping that it would work. After a few moments of being engulfed in light, it slowly faded to reveal...Billy...as a teenager!! All of us cheered glad that the device worked! Billy was looking down at himself, he was busily studying his hands and his entire body, then with a look of satisfaction that everything went well, he looked at us with a grin on his face.

"Okay, who's next?" Before any of us could answer lasers and fireballs came out of nowhere, I threw up shields protecting my friends but then several attacks came from behind us! We all screamed as we fell to the ground,_ I knew it! I knew this was a bad spot! What was Billy thinking? _Billy had snatched up the device and was holding onto it tightly and Tengu Warriors surrounded him and tried to get the device from his hands. Goldar was dragging me away from my friends while Rito was trying to stab Tommy, but he kept rolling form side to side avoiding his sword. All of us heard familiar laughter from above us looking up...we saw Lord Zedd and Rita. They were standing on a nearby rooftop gloating down at us. In that split second Billy lost the device to a Tengu Warrior who threw it toward Goldar who caught it, at the same time he handed me to a couple of Tengus who began to beat me. Goldar emptying the device of the Coins which he threw up in the air, then Lord Zedd and Rita Repulsa crossed their wands and fired at the Coins...the Coins...the Coins disintegrated!! I stared in shock as the dust that was the Power Cions fell to the ground and was swept away by the wind. My mind went blank with shock, I didn't even feel the blows from the Tengu Warriors, or hear the voices of my enemies laughter. I didn't feel anything when Dex suddenly appeared with the Aquatar Ranger. Dex kicked back Goldar and the Tengus while the others were being saved by the Aquatars. Everything seemed to be happening in slow motion. I saw Zedd and Rita cross their wands once again and make Billy's device into a monster, Dex was shouting something at me but I couldn't hear. My mind kept replaying what I had just seen, what Zedd and Rita had just done. Dex dragged me to hide behind another building not far way, he knelt on the ground in front of me and called my name over and over again but I didn't hear him. Finally giving up Dex went back to the battle field to retrieve my friends who had stood up and were staring in shock at the place where Rita and Zedd had once stood. Dex went to them and shouted something at them, as one they all turned toward him and continued to stare at him, the shock still on their faces. As one they all followed Dex as he ran back to where I was hiding as soon as we were all together, Dad teleported us to the Command Center.


	48. Chapter 48

Chapter 48

All of us were still in shock when we arrived at the Command Center, Dad had us all sit down while Alpha and Ninjor, who thought he was needed more in the Command Center then down on the battle field, tried to get all of us to snap out it. Tommy suddenly let out a loud yell and began to shake uncontrollably. Adam had a terrified look on his face. Katherine and Rocky were staring into space with a look of horror in their eyes, as if they were seeing what had happened being replayed over and over. All of us didn't hear our friends calling to us, we had shut out everything except for our shock and disbelief at what we just witnessed. _How is it even possible? How is it possible that they...could destroy the Power Coins? _I had always thought that the Coins were indestructible...but...maybe nothing is indestructible. I mean look at the Ninja Zords and the Zords that came before them. All of them have been destroyed by the forces of evil, it had gained the upper hand and had taken the chance to strike a serious blow against the Power Rangers. But Dad had always came up with a Plan B, by giving his rangers new weapons and new Zords from a source, which would give the rangers the chance to turn the tables, kick butt and send the baddies packing. _But now...I'm not even sure that Dad has a back up plan for this. _I had thought that when Master Vile had _finally_ turned tail and ran his spell over the earth would cease and everything would be turned back to normal. But that didn't happen. We were still little kids. But what was worse was that Lord Zedd seemed to upstage Vile as soon as he had left, so he began to pull out all of the stops, attacking my friends and I the Aquatar Rangers, our families and friends with monsters left and right. The Aquatar Rangers and Dex would return to the Command Center exhausted. And I would do my best to heal them of their injuries and give them more strength and power, to be ready for the next attack, but they were slowly being beaten. I was finding it more and more harder to find a light at the end of our dark situation. Now, it seemed like there was no light at all. Lord Zedd was going to win.

Tommy suddenly leapt up and began to shout and curse at the top of his voice tears were streaming down his face...seeing Tommy crying...was a first for me.. I had thought that he was the strongest of all the Rangers...yet seeing him like this...I found that I couldn't hold it in any longer...I began to cry and the others did also. _What are we going to do? At this rate the Aquatar Rangers will have to stay here on earth_,_ Lord Zedd might set up a trap for them and kill them then nothing will stand in his way of taking all of us, including our families. I won't be able to protect them. I won't be able to protect mom...what if I'm captured? _My body began to shake with terror as I began to imagine all the horrible things that Zedd will do to me. Dex and the Aquatar Rangers had returned and were trying to calm us down, at least Dex was, the Aquatarians were just standing there and looking at us curiously. After shouting at all of us to calm down and to stop crying like little kids while shouting at Dad and asking him if there was anyway to win this war, Dad answered Dex's question.

"Yes. There is a way." All of us stopped and stared at Dad. The silence lasted for a full minute. _There's hope? Dad has a Plan B? _

"What is it?" Tommy asked Dad while he took a Kleenex from Tento and blew his nose, Alpha was going around the room with a box of Kleenex.

"The Zeo Crystal." Dad said, rather simply I might add. I stared at him.

"B–but the Zeo Crystal is destroyed. We destroyed it and sent it through that worm hole that you opened." Said Adam.

"That's true, but we could track the whereabouts of the pieces of the crystal. If we reconstruct the Zeo Crystal then it'll probably give us enough power to return the earth to its normal time period plus revert all of you back to your normal selves." said Tentomon. _If we get the pieces of the Crystal and put them together...then..._ My first thought was that I wasn't going to do it, I wasn't going to lose my mother and my family a second time, I wasn't going to go back to the pain of seeing her tombstone in the cemetery, I—didn't want that. _But Dex and the Aqua Rangers_..._they're on their last legs_. _And sooner or later I'll be captured, my friends will be killed. There will be no one to protect the earth. Should I really sacrifice my family and my happiness just so time can be reversed and everything will turn back to normal?_ As I was thinking the others were discussing about the whereabouts of the Zeo Crystal pieces and how Dad will open up a worm hole so that we can all go to different time periods and retrieve them. But I wasn't really listening, I was trying to sort out my feelings and my thoughts, but I was so confused!! I wanted to return the earth to normal but then that would mean losing mom again, but if I didn't then the power rangers will be killed. I wanted to shout out my frustration to the sky and run away, far away from all that was happening right now. I closed eyes and reopened them and looked up at my father, he looked down at me. _I have to do this. Not for the earth's sake but for Dad's sake, for Mom's sake. Both of them had risked so much in trying to protect me from the forces of evil, from Lord Zedd and Count Dregon._ I began to focus on the one reason why I became a ranger in the first place, to punish Lord Zedd for everything that he's done to me and to redeem myself of what I've been forced to do while underneath his spell. Add to what he did to my sister, my friends and what he did to Mom, _I will personally see to it that I escort him to the gates of hell. _Anger and hatred pushed the sadness and grief away. I stole a glance at Dex. Every time we looked at each other I could see the pain in his eyes that pain was a reflection of my own. We couldn't be together for very long out in public, it was like we had to sneak around and the battles with both Master Vile and Lord Zedd weren't helping at all.

"I don't want you to go through the pain that your mother and I suffered." I heard Dad's words repeat themselves in my head. And I made a promise to Dad that Dex and I wouldn't go through that. In the past weeks that had followed the earth's backward trip through time, I would often catch Dad looking with longing at my mother. I would ask him a couple of times if she had ever made the trip up to the Command Center, to which he would never reply. I decided not to ask anymore because I thought that he might get angry. _I...I wonder if it was a lot more easier on him when Mom was dead. It must hurt even more to see her alive and not being able to..._ As I looked up at him tears welled up in my eyes and I turned my head away. _Dad, I'm sorry. I've been selfish, all this time I was thinking of my own pain of losing Mom again that I forgot about the amount of pain that you're going through just seeing her. I'll make this right Dad, you can count on it. _I took a deep breath and stepped forward.

"So, are we going to be on our own or are you two going to draw maps for us?" Dad smiled sadly down at me and explained that, since our bodies have gotten used to holding some of my power within them, we should be able to sense where the pieces are, since we purified it with our energy.

"Well, that should make things a whole lot easier for us." Rocky said. The others nodded in agreement, I only smiled half heartedly. _To fix the earth and to bring back the Power Ranger Team..._ I looked down at the ground, Dex put his hand on my shoulder, I looked up at him. He gave me a soft smile, which I barley returned. We were to go on our journey in a few hours time, so we had better get some rest and get anything that we might need.

I went home with a heavy heart and an even heavier mind. I didn't want my family to be separated again, I wanted to come home to them like before, I wanted my mother to be around when the earth was put back to normal, so she could met Dex and my friends, but...being a super hero also means making sacrifices and this is just one of them. As I packed a small backpack with water bottles and some food, I looked around the kitchen. On an impulse I began to walk around the entire house touching things and committing them forever to memory. I stopped in my little brother's office and smiled when I saw that they had left half filled glasses of soda and cereal bowls with a bit of milk in them. I walked out the back door and looked at all of the plants that my mother had planted over the years. She loved plants especially flowers. I looked at all of the flowers, breathed in the air and listened to the bird song in the trees. _I'm going to miss this place_. I trudged back into the house and up the stairs memories flowing through my mind of the last few times I had fallen down the stairs and ended up crying when I had reached the bottom, of when my brothers would take turns leaping out of some hiding place and scaring the living daylights out of me. How I had covered my eyes and shook in fear when I saw my first scary movie by myself. I blinked back tears, trying extremely hard not to cry. I looked around my room thinking that maybe I could take something with me, but I wasn't untruly sure if it would survive the passages of time. I looked around my comfortable room, then with a sigh I slipped out of my backpack, let it hit the floor and flopped into my bed. I continued to stare at the wall, emotion welling up inside of me as more memories flooded into my mind. I closed my eyes grabbed one of my stuffed animals and began to cry.

Dad called but I was already awake, dreading the sound of my communicator. I sat up and stared for a few minutes at nothing. _Time to go._ Getting up and sliding on my back pack I went down stairs and found my mother cleaning up my brothers office and grumbling about it, I leaned against the door frame and smiled at her. She looked up when she noticed me.

"Hey honey." She caught sight of my backpack.

"Are you going exploring again?" I nodded not able to speak.

"Well be careful okay? And be home before it gets dark."

"Yes, mom." My voice cracked at bit. Then I stepped over to her and hugged her tightly, I didn't want to leave but...I had to. Separating myself from her I gave her a kiss on the cheek and said.

"Mom, you know that I love you right?" She smiled at me and nodded.

"I love you too." I turned and made my way to the door and put my hand on the knob. Every part of my being screamed at me not to go, to stay home. But I forced myself to look at my mother for the last time and say the words that I wasn't able to say the last time.

"Good bye Mom." Then I turned back to the door, turned the knob opened it and stepped through it out into the sunshine.

All of us where gathered outside of the Command Center, the wormhole had opened and we were gazing at it. Dex and the Aqua rangers were there to wish us all luck and a safe journey back, then one by one we entered the worm hole. I was last. Dex was staring at me and he looked as if he was going to say something but something was holding him back. Without warning he dropped down on one knee wrapped his arms around and kissed me hard one the mouth.

"Come back to me okay?" He said. I nodded too overwhelmed with emotion to speak. He released me and as I was walking toward the wormhole and about to enter it he called back to me, I turned my head.

"Amy, I love you." I stared at him for a few minutes tears welling up in my eyes.

"I love you too." I called back to him before stepping into the wormhole and vanishing.


	49. Chapter 49

Chapter 49

I found myself in the middle of nowhere. _That was a fast trip._ I thought to myself as I looked at my surroundings. There was nothing but dirt, a few trees, with barely enough leaves to provide shade, some bushes and off in the distance I saw a couple of houses. Taking off my backpack I bent and undid the zipper, then I pulled out a wide brimmed hat and placed it on my head. _There that's better. Now to find the Yellow Zeo Crystal_..._I mean sub crystal_. I closed my backpack and hoisted it onto my shoulders and began to trudge toward a house that was nearest to me. But then I veered and began to head toward the other houses. I didn't sense the sub crystal in the first one.. _Maybe its in the one of the other houses._ The houses were in fact a mile apart from each other and upon closer inspection, they turned out to be ranches. I saw horses, cows, small little gardens, chickens clucking, roosters crowing and one of them had a dog that barked at me. My mother had told me stories about a ranch where she grew up, she had wanted to go and visit with us kids but... I shook my head as my throat began to tighten and forcing all thoughts of my mother and my family from my thoughts I continued to walk on until I reached the last ranch. I stood outside the gate, sensing that the sub crystal was here, but how do I get it? I looked at the house, it appeared rundown with a sagging roof. There was a fence surrounding the entire premise and there were chickens and roosters and cows. I looked around the yard and I tried to see into the windows but I couldn't see anyone and the sun reflected off of the windows making it impossible to see inside. _Looks like no one's home._ _Still..._

"Hello?" I called loudly.

"Hello?" A voice answered, it sounded old. A woman appeared from the back from the house and hobbled toward the gate she stopped in front it and looked at me.

"Buenos Dias chicitita." (Good day, little girl.) _This woman speaks Spanish, am I in Mexico? Why did the wormhole bring me here?_ Then I remembered that my mother was born in Mexico before she was old enough to move to the United States and then to Angel Grove. I swallowed hard. It had been an extremely long time since I've spoken Spanish, the last I had spoken a bit of Spanish was...when was it..._oh yes_...when I was reading a flyer that was written in Spanish. I could speak the basics and I understood most of it but to carry on a Spanish speaking conversation was impossible for me. _I just have to remember, even if my memory is not at all well...Blast it Dregon!_ I took a deep breath hoping that the old woman wasn't going to think that I was some dumb American girl. Especially when she heard my accent.

"Buenos Dias Abuelita."( Good Day Grandmother.)

"Yo estoy buscando trabajo, tienes algo para me?" (I'm looking for work do you have some for me?) The old woman looked at me up and down then she asked me how old I was, to which I told her the truth, in this case ten years old. After a moment she asked.

"Que trabajo estas buscando?" (What kind of work are you looking for?) I bit my lower lip struggling to remember the words that I would often hear my mother say. _Why did she have to start talk in English right after I got out of the hospital?_

"Limpando, cocinado mirando los ninos." (Cooking cleaning, watching the kids.) The woman looked at me up and down again.

"No tengo ninos, y yo me hecho la cocinado." (I don't have kids and I do all the cooking). Her face lit up.

"Puedes a ayudar me a limpar mi cercado." (You can help me clean my yard) I nodded vigorously.

"Y hecho a comida a mis animales." (And give food to my animals.) Again I nodded.

"Gracias Abuelita, gracias." (Thank you Grandmother, thank you) She smiled at me and undid the latch of the gate and I walked in.

"Queries pago?" (Would you like pay?)

"Depues la trabajo." (After the work.) The woman seemed surprised. But pleased, she guided me to the middle of, what appeared to be the back yard. The yard was filthy, there was piles of wooden planks everywhere, animal droppings old food on the ground and old hay. I looked around the yard and began to nod._ Physical hard work. Nice._ I thought to myself as I rolled up my sleeves of my shirt, the old woman told me that she would like me to put the planks in the shed and to pick up the old hay and animal droppings and bury them, I nodded and promised her that I would do it, she told me that after that she would like me to feed and water her animals, again I agreed. Then I set to work.

My step dad had always told me that I was the hardest working member of the family, while my brothers would moan and groan about doing their chores, I would eagerly throw myself into the work. If I had nothing to do, I would look for something to do, getting nervous in the process of doing nothing. I was weird that way. I laughed to myself as I remembered my brothers giving me weird looks when I begged my step dad if I could go with him to haul up heavy loads of lumber onto his truck and transport it to another location. He would only laugh and say.

"Amy, the kind of work I do is not for girls, besides you might get hurt." Then he would smile and ruffle the top of my head while I glared at him, insulted and hurt. _Look at me now Jared. Your little girl preforming men's work._ I breathed a sigh and wiped the sweat from my forehead. I straighten my back and rotated my shoulders. I took off my hat and fanned my face with it. It felt good to work with my hands and my body, I never did chores with my powers because it felt like...cheating. Well I did use my powers to clean the attic this one time but that was because the last time I had cleaned the attic a giant spider had scuttled past me and I had freaked. Replacing my hat on my head I went to my pack back and began to dig around for a water bottle but the woman was standing there with a glass of plain water. She handed it to me, I smiled my thanks to her and drank thirstily, then handed it back to her with another smile, I turned and went back to work. Soon the yard was clean, seeing this the woman handed me a bag of feed and I entered the chicken coop and feed the animals.

As I sat on the ground fanning myself and wiping sweat from my forehead, I began to laugh and cry at the same time. I felt a lot more closer to my mother somehow. Working in the sun with your bare hands, becoming stronger each and every day, knowing that the days work is done thanks to your will to complete the work and do it without stopping and finding satisfaction at the end of a hard days work. When I was 13, I had studied my mothers hands from front to back and would constantly wish for hands like hers, strong, weathered and that looked as if they told stories. I still wanted my hands to be like that. I looked down at my young hands and flexed them. _Good and strong but not like mom's. Wonder if they will ever be like her's. _I sighed then grunted as I stood up and dusted myself off. I looked around the yard feeling proud that I could help someone, someone that didn't know who I was. Plus it felt freeing somehow to be in an unknown place where nobody knew who you were or who you used to be. I turned and made my way up to the door and knocked, it opened and the woman poked her head out.

"Terminates?" She asked. (Are you done?) I nodded.

"Si." (Yes.) She stepped out and looked around, she nodded then led the way inside. Leading me to a kitchen she told me to wait a moment while she got my pay. I nodded and waited while she reached up to a shelf and from the top shelf she took down a box, she brought it over to me and opened it. My first thought was that it was money but when she opened it all the way, I let out a gasp. It was the sub crystal!! Tingling all over with excitement I watched the old woman take out the glowing crystal then pressed it into my hands. She said a string of Spanish. From what I could understand she was grateful to me for helping her and that the crystal was all the payment she could give me since she had very little money and something else that I couldn't understand. I smiled at her gave her my thanks grabbed my backpack hoisted it onto my shoulders and gave her a wave good bye while I was walking out the gate. I looked at the Zeo sub crystal, as soon as I had touched it the crystal, which had been green in color, changed to yellow and its energy flowed up into my arms. I felt a tingle in my body. I was looking forward to going home and not just so I could reunite with my friends and put my piece with the other pieces of the Zeo Crystal, I was eager to see Dex again. My body tingled all over and my heart quicken as I remembered the words that he had thrown out to me.

"Amy, I love you!" I let out a happy squeal and jumped in the air and began to twirl around happily. _He loves me!! How awesome is that?_ I thought to myself as I pranced and danced. My feet were barely touching the ground and that was because I was in love and that love lent me wings and nothing was going to bring me down. I danced and spun and didn't even notice the wormhole opening in front of me, I pranced right into it and was whisked off to present day Angel Grove.

I found myself back in the Command Center and what I saw before me brought me crashing back to Earth. Dex was lying on the floor of the Command Center clutching his arm. Blood was dripping out from between his fingers. I took off my back pack and let it drop to the floor then I rushed toward him.

"Dex! What happened?" I said as I dropped to my knees and studied him. He turned toward me and attempted to smile.

"Oh this? This is just a paper cut, you should check out the rest of me, all black and blue." He let out a chuckle then his face contorted in pain. At the same time he sucked in his breath. Billy who had been trying to move Dex onto the couch stepped toward me, but I hardly noticed him.

"Do you have the Sub Crystal?" He asked. I nodded without really looking at him and blindly handed it over. As I began to heal Dex of his bruises I became aware of people talking to me. I looked up to see the rest of the Ranger Team standing around and looking at me and Dad had a rather annoyed look on his face.

"Oh, sure go straight to your boyfriend and act like the rest of us don't exist." He said but his eyes twinkled. I stood up and so did Dex.

"I'm sorry...I just..." But Dad shook his head.

"It's quite all right Amy, I'm just so glad that you got back safely."

"Ditto." said Tento. The others nodded in agreement. I looked around and saw Billy fit my piece of the crystal with the others which were all on a small pedestal. I was glad to see that the others mission had gone successful, we had all 5 pieces. He held it there for a few moments. Then turned and explained to me that the Aquatar Rangers were waiting for us to say good bye to them before we returned back to normal. Forcing myself not to think about my Mom and my family, I followed the others as we met them by the lake. We all shook hands telling Delphine and the others that we owed them a huge thank you for helping us out in our time of need. And to come visit Angel Grove anytime.

"The pleasure was ours." Said Delphine with a smile, then all of them raised their arms, bade us farewell and vanished back to their home world.

We got back to the Command Center, Dex was there also, he wanted to see me as a young woman again, I was a little afraid that the change would affect him too since he wasn't in the form of the Masked Rider but Dex assured me that he wouldn't be. The others had looks of anticipation and excitement on their faces. Me, I was partly dreading returning to my 16 year old self, that meant going back to living with Katherine, having the scars on my back once again and walking with a limp. But the worse part was not seeing Mom again,_ I wish that I could have spent more time with her. _But I knew that even if I had spent all the time in the world with her, it still wouldn't be enough.

"Ready?" Said Billy. We all nodded and surrounded the pedestal, Dex moved back a bit.

"Okay Billy." Tommy said. Billy nodded then moved all the pieces together. The Zeo Crystal began to glow then it shot out a light that engulfed all of us. We all let out yells of surprise as we were all blown off of our feet. A moment passed and the light faded. The other Rangers stood up and marveled at each other, they were back to normal!!

"It worked!" Shouted Rocky happily.

"Wait where's—?" Said Tommy looking around. They didn't see Dex either, but they heard muttering and the sound of someone choking and whimpering. They stepped over to me and looked down in horror, Dex was kneeling beside me while I continued to wither in pain, it looked as if I was being tortured right before their eyes. Tears of anguish were streaming down my eyes, my face was contorted with a mixture of anger and pain. I opened my mouth in a silent scream.

"What's happening?"

"What's wrong with her?"

"Did something go wrong?"

"Zordon help her!" Dad looked down at me, a helpless look in his eyes as he watched me experience the whippings that I suffered. I let out a whimper as I grabbed onto Dex tightly and stared at him with pain filled eyes. Finally I flopped onto the ground panting hard and crying, the others were on their knees bending over me asking me questions, crowding me crushing me. _I can't breath!_ I let out a choking gasp and began to fight for air.

"Everyone get back!" Shouted Dex. "Give her room to breath!" The others scrambled to their feet and took several steps back, Dex began talking to me in a low voice calming me, teaching me how to breath more easily until I was breathing on my own. I leaned against his chest breathing more easily, my eyes were closed and I clutched at him.

"Its okay Amy, its okay." Dex said as he smoothed my hair back.

"Its okay Amy, I'm here."

"What happened?" Asked Adam. Dad gave out a sigh and explained as Alpha scurried off then returned with an open water bottle. Handing it over to Dex who lifted it to my lips and poured some water into my mouth, after I had swallowed I coughed and gagged. He kept pouring water into my mouth while Dad explained that other than returning to my 16 year old self all of the scars that I received from Lord Zedd had returned as well. Billy looked at me, I was struggling to stand and was leaning heavily against Dex who sat me on the couch. I flopped onto it and Dex made me drink some more water, Billy was about to apologize but I waved him away. I was gulping air and wiping tears from my eyes and wincing in pain even though it was going away.

"No need B–billy, I—its not your fault." I drank some more water, then leaned against Dex, who put his arm around me and hugged me. I gave him a shaky smile.

"We're back to normal, that's what counts." Billy only looked worriedly at me.

Dex had to go back to Leawood, it was nice having him here and told him so, he smiled at me as he got on Combat Chopper.

"It was nice staying in the same place where the person that I love is." We took a long time saying good bye. Finally we separated.

"Say hi to your family for me." I said.

"I will." Then both of them rode onto Leawood.

We were all in the Command Center talking about what we were going to do from now on, Dad was about to tell us when who should appear but Goldar and Rito! Both of them slashed at us and grabbed the Zeo Crystal and vanished, then as if on cue the Command Center began to shake and tremble!

"There's a bomb inside the Command Center. All of you get out now!" Screamed Dad.

"Dad no!"

"We are not leaving you!" Screamed Billy. Before any of us could make a move Billy had thrown himself onto Tentomon and was clutching him tightly the rest of us were teleported out of the Command Center. We all ended up at the bottom of the mountain where the Command Center stood and watched in horror as it exploded before our very eyes!!

"Dad! Tentomon!"

"Zordon! Alpha!" Screamed the others. I couldn't believe it Lord Zedd had won! He had finally won!


End file.
